Hearthstone: Whispers of the Old Gods Full Set Review

So yeah, I'm talking about Hearthstone here, I guess. It's a game dear to my heart, mostly because Warcraft III was such a huge part of me growing up. I used to talk about Hearthstone in a gaming sideblog but that kinda withered up and died, so my halfway-done project of reviewing the newest set, Whispers of the Old Gods, ended up being unposted and unfinished. Well, no sense leaving it to waste. I revised it after the metagame had settled down a little, and here we go. Obviously, placed behind a page break so it doesn't take like a titanic chunk of the blog for those who scroll down.





So, I'm going to try to be using a ranking system here. A 3 is for an average, good card that you would include if there aren't any better alternatives, or for slightly more gimmicky cards. 4 is for good cards that function well particularly in decks that suit them, and 5 are the super-awesome cards on the level of your Piloted Shredders and Dr. Booms. A 2 is for cards that theoretically has a good effect, but in practice generally take a relatively larger amount of setup, or is just useful against certain archetypes, and is therefore bad because of that. A 1 is for the utterly unusable cards.

Each class will have a selection of four of what I think are the best cards they got this expansion.


Druid Class Cards
Druids get two powerful C'Thun cards, a couple of Beast synergy cards, a Forbidden card and a fucking awesome Ancient to compensate for the large nerfs they got recently.

• Forbidden Ancient: So several classes receive these 'Forbidden' cards where you spend all your mana to get an equivalently-large effect. Druids get a minion, the Forbidden Ancient, which costs one mana, and for every further mana point you spend you get +1/+1. It's not a bad concept, and it's definitely flexible, but Druids already have enough tools to be flexible, really, and the Forbidden Ancient ends up being way too underwhelming. A vanilla four-mana 4/4, a five-mana 5/5, a six-mana 6/6 are all underwhelming for their cost and you're better off playing something else. If this had an additional Taunt text or something it would be good, but as it is, it's a pretty substandard Epic card. (2/5)
• Mark of Y'Shaarj: Basically similar to Mark of the Wild, but instead of giving your minion taunt, Mark of Y'Shaarj gives you a card draw if you apply it on a beast. Obviously for the still-struggling Beast Druid archetype, which I don't think has enough tools to be appealing over C'Thun Druid or Fandral Druid or whatever, but the nerf to Ancient of Lore probably will have you consider this cheaper alternative to Nourish if you are really desperate for card draw. It's decent in a proper deck, so it could be a sleeper hit once Druid gets even more Beast-synergy cards in the next expansion. But right now it's kinda meh. (2/5)
• Addled Grizzly: Here's a Druid Beast! That works better if you run a Druid deck that generates a lot of Tokens. A three-mana 2/2 is way too weak for its stats, though, and while it buffs every single minion summoned while it's on field by +1/+1, the Grizzly is way too weak and easy to remove. It's decent as a late-game play if you play, like, Wisps of the Old Gods or Onyxia, but it's ultimately way too gimmicky and unstable. Having this be in the pool of Beasts means that there are ways to get this minion from, like, Faceless Summoner or Webspinner or Ram Wrangler or Raven Idol or whatever, though, and it's one of the cooler things of Hearthstone, that these cards you don't want to take up a slot in your deck can actually show up and be cool thanks to the effects of other cards. (2/5)
• Feral Rage: A bit of an underrated card, I thought Feral Rage was pretty cool and enjoyed some success with it. Feral Rage gives your hero +4 Attack for this turn, or 8 Armor. On the off-chance that you play it with Fandral Staghelm you can get both, which is insane for three mana. But it's a very flexible tool that allows you to either remove something with four health, which for three mana is fine, or allows you to heal for eight armour. I don't think Druid has ever gotten cards that actively increase their Armour, which in itself is a nice, cool thing. (3/5)
• Fandral Staghelm: The Druids' legendary this time around is a pretty important character in World of Warcraft lore, the Archdruid Fandral Staghelm, who, while eventually succumbing to corruption, has a pretty tragic storyline behind him. It breaks the trend of three successive legendaries being powerful primordial spirits (Cenarius, Malorne, Aviana), because in addition to being just a druid, Fandral is a mere four-mana 3/5. But its effect is insane, allowing you to get both Choose One effects... Ancient of War becomes a 10/10 Taunt for seven mana, Druid of the Claw becomes a 4/6 with Charge and Taunt for five mana, Druid of the Flame becomes a 5/5 for three mana, Nourish, Mire Keeper, Feral Rage, Cenarius, Raven Idol... all the Choose One cards suddenly become far, far more awesome! Druid cards are already good for what they do, but to gain both effects at once is just phenomenal. And Fandral loses a mere 1 attack from the accepted 4/5 statline, which in itself is insane value. (4/5)
• Klaxxi Amber-Weaver: The Klaxxi Amber-Weaver is one of the cards in the Druids' arsenal that work with C'Thun, and is one of the reasons that C'Thun Druids are so powerful. The Klaxxi Amber-Weaver is a Yeti body even without his effect, which is respectable enough. With C'Thun buffed to 10 Attack, which honestly is relatively easy to get by turn four if you manage to get out two C'Thun minions, the Amber-Weaver becomes a 4/10 for four mana, an insanely large body that will just refuse to die, trading against like three minions before your it finally dies. Even dropping the Amber-Weaver at turn five or six still makes him pretty good, and unlike Twilight Drake, silencing it still leaves behind a 4/5 body which in itself is respectable. And woe betide you if you have the misfortune to see one of these buffed into a giant mantis wall by the Defender of Argus. The Amber-Weaver is a deceptively powerful control tool that helps Druids survive until turn ten upon which the horrors of C'Thun is unleashed. (4/5)
• Mire Keeper: Mire Keeper is the first card in this review that's a "corrupted" version of an older card, in this case the Keeper of the Grove... which is nerfed in this expansion. The Mire Keeper, instead of damaging and disabling your opponent, instead buffs you up. You either get a free Wild Growth or a free 2/2 Slime minion in addition to the Mire Keeper's own 3/3. For four mana, it's a pretty decent play for a bit of a tempo loss. Mire Keeper is a very balanced card, too, because its statline of 3/3 is poor enough to justify the stat loss for its effect, but high enough that it doesn't die to pings. Definitely one of the MVP's for Druids in this expansion. It's great, and a very flavourful Druid card. (5/5)
• Dark Arakkoa: The Dark Arakkoa is an elegantly simple card. For six mana, it's a 5/7 Taunt, losing a single point of Attack compared to the vanilla Boulderfist Ogre in exchange for Taunt... and adding a whopping +3/+3 to C'Thun. The Dark Arakkoa adds the highest bonus to C'Thun in a guaranteed single move, in addition to being one of the most efficient Taunters in the game. It's simple and awesome and definitely one of the pillars of a good C'Thun Druid deck. (4/5)
• Wisps of the Old Gods: It's barely decent if you get this of with Fandral. Seven mana to summon seven Wisps, or give all your minions +2/+2. Seven mana! Mark of the Wild gives my minions +1/+1 for two mana, less than half of the price of this card. Onyxia, for two mana more, summons that much wisps and an 8/8 body. Cenarius, likewise, also gives the +2/+2 buff to everyone for two mana more and you get a 5/8 body. Yeah, this card is just bad. So naturally almost every time I crack open Epic cards in this game I get this card. Oh well, free dust. (1/5)

Hunter Class Cards
Hunters get zero C'Thun cards or Forbidden cards, but get a ton of Beasts, a couple of excellent mid-game/late-game cards, and despite the archetype-destroying nerfs to Face Hunter decks, nearly every card they got from this expansion is pretty solid.

• Fiery Bat: Named in honour of Hearthstone's first world champion Firebat, the Fiery Bat is your new replacement for Leper Gnome, Aggro Hunter decks! Not that Aggro Hunter is good anymore with so many of its old tools nerfed (Arcane Golem, Leper Gnome, Knife Juggler, Hunter's Mark) or punted out of rotation, but it's a great card in any case! A one-mana 2/1 that deals a point of random damage as a Deathrattle is a far more balanced card than the old Leper Gnome, and being a Beast means that it gets synergy with stuff like Kill Command, Houndmaster et cetera. It's a far superior one-drop Beast than the Stonetusk Boar, too, since if it lives it's two extra damage you can dish out, and if it dies you get the Deathrattle. (4/5)
• On the Hunt: For one mana, you deal one damage and you summon a 1/1 Beast. It's... underwhelming, I think, though Hunters don't have one-mana pings, so there's that. There are cheaper ways to summon beasts and/or deal damage, though, with Fiery Bat and Arcane Shot being far better respectively for similarly one mana. It's not a bad card, but it's not a card you really want to use either. (2/5)
• Carrion Grub: A vanilla three-mana 2/5 Beast. How do giant disgusting maggots tie in with Old Gods anyway? It looks boring, but it's a decent three-mana play that you can Houndmaster next turn. It's solid as far as vanilla minions go, but you can find better things to put in your deck. (2/5)
• Forlorn Stalker: Three mana 4/2, which everyone knows is a good statline, with the effect of giving every Deathrattle minion in your hand +2/+2. It's a far more stable version of the Mistcaller, which no one plays because of the insane loss of tempo you get by playing him. The Forlorn Stalker is perfectly decent stats for his mana cost, its stat boost is far more relevant than the Mistcaller, and while it only targets a specific subset of cards in your hand, Hunters did get two very good Deathrattle minions in this expansion: Firebat and the Infested Wolf. The Forlorn Stalker is quite good in Deathrattle Hunters running Huhuran and N'Zoth, and while it's not the most essential card in that deck it's still a pretty cool card. Plus, when you do get Forlorn Stalker to trigger on Sylvanas it's nothing to laugh at. (3/5)
• Infest: For three mana, give all your minions the Webspinner Deathrattle. Decent if you combo it with Unleash the Hounds, I suppose, but ultimately it's not that good. The loss of tempo isn't really that justified, even if you play things like Princess Huhuran, and while Beasts are generally good, it's way too inconsistent just to clog up your hand with more Beasts. (1/5)
• Infested Wolf: Piloted Shredder and Haunted Creeper leave the Standard Format, but not before creating a lovechild exclusive to Hunters. It's a sticky minion, and Blizzard seems to be limiting sticky minions to specific classes instead of leaving minions like the Creeper and the Shredder to be automatic inclusions in every deck. The Infested Wolf is a four mana 3/3 Beast that summons two 1/1 Spiders upon death, a total of 10 stats for four mana which is better than the Yeti's total of 9 mana (Piloted Shredder is just broken if you try to calculate it in this way). But the Infested Wolf's spiders aren't like the Haunted Creeper, because they are Beasts, and therefore trigger Beast synergy, so you've got it going for you. And being a deathrattle minion, the Infested Wolf synergies well with Forlorn Stalker and Princess Huhuran. Not as powerful as Piloted Shredder, but far more stable and balanced. (4/5)
• Princess Huhuran: The Hunter legendary this time isn't a big beast again, and instead takes one of the Silithid bosses from Ahn'Qiraj. The Silithid worship the Old Gods, but Princess Huhuran apparently just loves to hang out with Deathrattle minions. Huhuran is a 6/5 for five mana, already a good statline since she's also a Beast, but she also triggers a friendly minion's Deathrattle effect. Princess Huhuran might seem simple, but she's an insanely powerful Legendary if you partner her up with Cairne or Sylvanas, or Savannah Highmane, and even managing to trigger like an Infested Wolf's deathrattle is decent. And even dropping Huhuran into the field without synergy isn't bad, really, with a 6/5 body being decent stats for 5 mana. Huhuran also has a cute crown on her head! Giant wasp mantis servitors of a primordial god older than Azeroth itself also can look pretty if they want to! (4/5)
• Call of the Wild: Aggressive Hunters have a problem of not having enough large-mana plays when facing control decks like Reno decks or Control Warriors. Well, Call of the Wild fixes it, keeping the Hunter's spirit of aggression and Beast synergy active, by packing three of Rexxar's Animal Companions into a single card. Call of the Wild is eight mana and summons Huffer (4/2 Charge), Misha (4/4 Taunt) and Leokk (2/4 with +1/+1 aura). That is cheaper than playing Animal Companion three times, which is insane -- generally these kind of multiplying cards cost more expensive. Look at Pyroblast or Ball of Spiders, which scales unfavourably for their mana cost compared to Fireball and Webspinner. Call of the Wild is just insane on an empty board, with the buffed-up Huffer just wrecking house while the buffed-up Misha protecting the Huffer and the Leokk. And if you already have an established board, the additional buff from Leokk will just allow you to go apeshit crazy. I've lost games simply because of this card being played on curve. Hunters might've lost a lot of their aggression tools, but they've also gained some really neat toys to play around with.(5/5)
• Giant Sand Worm: A lot of people write the Giant Sandworm off thanks to being too hard to pull off. An eight-mana 8/8 Beast that can attack again if it kills a minion is a very cool effect, but it's also very expensive to play. That said, though, with Bestial Wrath or Stablemaster, which makes the Giant Sandworm immune for a turn, it can literally clear your enemy's board, killing everything below 8 health, before hitting face for 8 damage. Yes, it's too gimmicky and it's not worth it putting Bestial Wrath and Stablemaster on the off chance that this combo gets triggered, so it's ultimately poor unless you run a combo deck or is fortunate to get it off a Ram Wrangler. (2/5)

Mage Class Cards
Mages get a single powerful C'Thun card, a Forbidden card, and a bunch of cards that are either very good or very bad, with very few in between. Casino Mage is one of the funnest decks to play ever, though.

• Forbidden Flame: The Mage's Forbidden card is simply deal your remaining mana as damage to a minion. No, you can't hit face, which makes it somewhat bad. It also scales unfavourably to literally every other mage spel out there like Fireball, Frostbolt, Flamecannon, Flame Lance et cetera, but the flexibility is really good! It's one of those cards everyone expects to be bad, but ends up being actually pretty good. And considering Mages have a lot of cards that synergize well with playing spells like Flamewaker, Mana Wyrm and Cult Sorcerer, this is a card I see on Mage decks more often than I thought I would. (4/5)
• Cult Sorcerer: Mages only get a single C'Thun card compared to Hunters and Priests who get two, but oh man, what an awesome card Cult Sorcerer is. A two-mana 3/2 with Spell Damage 1 already outstrips Kobold Geomancer and Soot Spewer on stat economy alone, but in addition to all that, it also buffs up your C'Thun for every spell you cast. And a lot of Mage decks already run cheap spells like Arcane Missiles, Arcane Blast and Frostbolt anyway in conjunction with Mana Wyrms and Flamewakers. The Cult Sorcerer enhances this damage output while adding stats to C'Thun, which is just insane value. Plus she just has such a cheery voice acting! (5/5)
• Shatter: For two mana, destroy a shattered minion. In other words, kind of like Execute... except more expensive, and you need to freeze a minion to make it work. When would I want to run this over any other spell in the game? Polymorph or Doomsayer are far more reliable, and you don't have to waste a spell to combo with this card, which takes up a space in your deck. It's a cool, flavourful card that's appropriate to a Mage's freezing theme, but ultimately not one you want in your deck. (1/5)
• Twilight Flamecaller: Arcane Explosion is rarely seen nowadays. Deal 1 mana to all enemy minions for two mana. Twilight Flamecaller slaps this effect onto a 2/2 minion for three mana, which probably makes you think that it's great value -- you get a 2/2 for one mana, which is value! Except that the Flamecaller doesn't trigger spell-based effects and don't get buffed by Spell Damage, both of which are generally important in Mage decks. It's not a bad card, it's just one that's unnecessary in a Mage's already powerful arsenal. (2/5)
• Demented Frostcaller: Also known as the 'Frostwaker', The Demented Frostcaller is one mana more expensive than the Flamecaller, and instead of dealing two random damage every time you cast a spell, it freezes a random enemy. Which is honestly... way too inconsistent and useless. Freezing a random enemy could be useless, especially when you accidentally freeze the enemy hero who might not even have a weapon. Freezing an enemy also doesn't have a chance of taking it out the way two damage would, and comboing it with Shatter is way too inconsistent. If you want to freeze enemies so badly why not play Frost Nova? Theoretically the Frostcaller might help to lock down your enemy's board forever if you have enough spells, but in practice it's just really quite bad. (1/5)
• Cabalist's Tome: It's both a good card and a bad card at the same time. If you have a board of minions that benefit from playing spells (the aforementioned Flamecaller, Cult Sorcerer and Mana Wyrm), you might get away with spending five mana without affecting the board. Five mana is a lot, but you get three random Mage spells, and nearly every single Mage spell is good, unlike the Hunters' get a random beast. But if you are forced to play Cabalist's Tome when your opponent has control of the board, well, you'll just feel silly. It's great to build up spell charges for the aforementioned minions and for an eventual Yogg-Saron play, so it averages out as just okay. (3/5)
• Servant of Yogg-Saron: Man, this card is kinda bad. Yogg-Saron is a pretty dope card, don't get me wrong, but just getting a single effect for the price of reducing a five-mana minion into a 5/4? With the actual Yogg-Saron, you're likely to wipe your opponent's board. With the Servant of Yogg-Saron, you cast a random spell that costs 5 or less, which is way less consistently good than Yogg-Saron. Sure, if you get a free Frost Nova, Consecration, Holy Nova, Arcane Intellect or Cabalist's Tome it's good for you, but you're also as likely to buff your opponent or kill your own minion since the pool of >5 mana spells are far more varied with more 'select a minion' targeting, compared to all the big board clears situated at a higher mana cost. (1/5)
• Faceless Summoner: Holy shit, this card just wrecks house in Arena! It's a common card in an already powerful class in Arena. And it's not bad in Constructed either. A six-mana 5/5 that summons a random 3-cost minion? More often than not, the total cost you get surpasses the 6/7 standard for a six-drop. Yes, sometimes you get duds like Magma Rager, Disciple of C'Thun or the newly-changed Ironbeak Owl, all of which die to pings, but by and by three-cost minions are good! Flamewaker, Frothing Berserker, Harvest Golem, Mounted Raptor, Scarlet Crusader, Imp Gang Boss, Demented Frostcaller, Argent Horserider, Emperor Cobra, Dreadscale, a bunch of half-decent Taunts, a bunch of chargers, Arcane Golem is decent with how it was changed... hell, for pure value you might even get King Mukla out of it, meaning you just summoned two 5/5's for six mana. Injured Blademaster, a 4/7, is also a prime drop. The common statline is 3/3 for things with battlecries like Blood Knight or MCT, which still is good value. Definitely one of the best minions in the game period. And I think this kind of summoning is a lot healthier than Piloted Shredder, because the minion isn't sticky and allows your opponent to react to both the 5/5 and the summoned three-drop on their turn. (5/5)
• Anomalus: Anomalus isn't the worst legendary in the game, but compared to Archmage Antonidas and Rhonin, and the likes of C'Thun and Yogg-Saron who are really good in mage decks, you're hard-pressed to find a reason to play Anomalus. An eight-mana 8/6 that deals 8 mana to every minion when it dies is a weird card since your opponent can very well dictate when this minion dies. It's basically a Twisting Nether, but instead of immediately wiping your enemy's board when you play it, you surrender the initiative for the off-chance that you might trade with an 8/6 next turn. Anomalus has cool artwork and a cool voiceover, and maybe he could be a more awesome Abomination if he had Taunt... but ultimately he's one of the worst legendaries in the game. (1/5)

Paladin Class Cards
Paladins get no C'Thun cards, understandable due to them being Paladins, but they get a Forbidden cards and a lot of Divine Shield synergy cards. They lost a fair amount of their solid early game thanks to the Standard rotation, but get a bunch of decent replacements in the process. Plus, Ragnaros the Lightlord!

• Forbidden Healing: The Paladins' Forbidden spell, you spend all your remaining mana and heal for twice that amount. Holy shit, that's a crapton of health! Yes, you lose your turn, but Paladin's already good with control anyway. In comparison, the Paladin's most powerful healing spell is Lay on Hands, which is heal 8 for 8 mana. You get three cards out of it, but sometimes that's not quite enough to survive a board you're behind. Man, if this card is in Priest with their Auchenais, you could have 20-damage tactical nukes! Forbidden Healing is a pretty powerful card in a class that can already control the board pretty well, and while not every Paladin deck can run it, the ones that find a place for it really make it work well. (3/5)
• Divine Strength: One mana, give a minion +1/+2. We never really had a defensive minion buffing spell, and it's not a bad card... it's just when do you ever want to use it compared to all the other buffing spells that Paladins have? It's not bad, just utterly outclassed. (2/5)
• Selfless Hero: See, these are the kind of healthy one-drops for the game, not Leper Gnome. The Selfless Hero is a decent one-drop with the ever-popular 2/1 statline, and upon death it gives a friendly minion Divine Shield. It's pretty easy for Paladins to get minions, and while this effect might not always trigger you're not too sad losing this effect as opposed to having, say, Sylvanas fizzle out. Just don't play this minion against a rogue or a mage on turn one. It's pretty good in a Divine Shield oriented deck with Blood Knight and Rallying Blade, and while that deck still isn't quite good enough on the Standard ladder, Selfless Hero is still all-around a really solid one-drop. And having this lady be revived by N'Zoth is not a bad thing too, buffing that N'Zoth or that Sylvanas in their short second life. (5/5)
• Vilefin Inquisitor: On first glance, I brushed over the Vilefin Inquisitor as not doing that much, but the Murloc Paladins that resulted thanks to Standard purging Old Murk-Eye and making a stop to the OTK Anyfin Can Happen combos ended up making great use of Vilefin Inquisitor. It's a 1/3 for one mana, which is a decent control card that won't be killed of by turn two, and being able to swarm the board with those 1/1 adorable Silver Hand Murlocs is absolutely insane value for a turn 3 combo with Murloc Warleader or Coldlight Seer. Ultimately, though, Murloc Paladins are missing their big finisher with a lack of something like Old Murk-Eye, and we'll probably have to wait for the next expansion for more powerful Murlocs, but this change from being straight-up aggro combos and instead just overwhelming your opponent with a crapton of Murlocs is really far better for the spirit of Murlocs. It's not overtly good, but in conjunction with everything else it might just be insane value. (3/5)
• A Light in the Darkness: Two mana, discover a minion, give it +1/+1. It's like Unstable Portal, but instead of the broken, unbalanced discount that Unbalanced Portal gives, you get to choose out of three, and give it a minor buff to boot. A Light in the Darkness is a good card, especially in Arena, but in Constructed, with so many better and more stable options, this card is just kinda outshined, yet a nice, simple card that can round up your decks. It's basically as good as Raven Idol is all I'm saying. (3/5)
• Rallying Blade: That's Varian Wrynn's sword, the Shalamayne. Except turned into a generic Paladin weapon. Just saying. In any case, though, the Rallying Blade is a three-mana 3/2 weapon that gives all your Divine Shield minions +1/+1 upon entry. Not the craziest buff ever, but considering how many Paladin cards in this set can give your minions Divine Shield (Selfless Hero, Steward of Darkshire), it's not inconceivable to combo out a mass buffing effect. I've seen an insane board with a Steward of Darkshire-buffed Murlocs get buffed by playing Rallying Blade and I just lost all my tempo right then and there. Tirion Fordring and Argent Protector are also cards that synergize well with Shalamayne. A 3/2 weapon isn't half-bad either, and this might be a good card once we get more Divine Shield synergy cards. As of now, though, it's just decent at best. (3/5)
• Steward of Darkshire: Holy shit, am I glad that Muster for Battle is rotated out, because that would be fucking insane with this card. It's the reverse Hobgoblin, buffing 1-health minions, except the Steward gives them Divine Shields, allowing synergy with Rallying Blade and Blood Knight. And Paladins have a lot of great one-drops like the Selfless Hero herself, all the 1/1 tokens summoned by Muster for Battle and Stand for Darkness... and absolutely devastating with Charge minions. Wolfrider and Bluegill Warrior (who also gets buffed by Murloc-synergy cards) get Divine Shield which makes them insane. Things like Twilight Drake, Murloc Tidehunter and Bilefin Tidehunter also become insanely powerful with Steward of Darkshire. It's got pretty decent stats, too. A 3/3 for three mana is decent and durable enough, but not irritating to remove. (4/5)
• Stand Against Darkness: Five mana, summon five 1/1's... is not that good, otherwise Dark Wispers would be playable. Muster for Battle is great because it's the early game and you get a weapon for free. This? Not so much. Sure, you get synergy with Steward of Darkshire, but how many times is that going to get pulled off? You're better off playing actually good five-drops. Loatheb this ain't. (1/5)
• Ragnaros, Lightlord: A lot of people underrate this card either because they think it's inferior to Tirion (well, it is) or are just pissed at Blizzard pissing all over the lore... but I find it okay. It's a strange choice to use Ragnaros as opposed to many other characters in the game, especially far more appropriate cards for Paladins, but the harsh fan feedback means that the creators promised that Ragnaros the Lightlord (none of this comma shit, please) is the furthest they're going to push away from the lore. In any case, though, Ragnaros the Lightlord is hilarious! LIVE, INSECT! And, come on, that shield looks awesome as all hell. And Ragnaros the Lightlord is an actually awesome card. It restores 8 health, guaranteed to a random damaged friendly character, which means alongside things like Forbidden Healing, Paladins can take a ridiculous amount of damage to bring down. Unlike the Firelord version of Ragnaros, the Lightlord can also attack, so in addition to healing 8 health to something every turn, you also deal 8 damage with Ragnaros every turn into a target you control. Yes, Ragnaros the Lightlord loses some health while trading, but you control where the damage goes, and it's also likely for the Lightlord to heal himself anyway. It's not the most stable of legendaries, and Tirion Fordring is still way more stable than this, but holy shit Ragnaros the Lightlord is a powerful legendary that I think too many people underestimate. (4/5)

Priest Class Cards
Priests get two C'Thun cards, a Forbidden card, and a bunch of everything. Removal, buffs, solid cards, wacky legendaries, and coupled with neutral cards makes priest actually quite more powerful, losing comparatively little in the Standard rotation.

• Forbidden Shaping: Forbidden Shaping is a awesome card. It's the Priest's Forbidden spell, and you summon a random minion that costs as much as the mana you spend. The trick, really, is to know when to play Forbidden Shaping. Two mana is obviously good since Priest is notorious for never having a proper two-drop, Doomsayer notwithstanding, and three mana is almost always good. But other than those two, you want to go big, and the best stuff is at 8 mana. 6, 7 and 10 drops have too many battlecries that do not activate and you're sad when Forbidden Shaping makes a 6/6 C'Thun for 10 mana, or a 5/5 Ancient of War for 7 mana, or any of the 8/8 giants. And while 9 mana can net you Ysera, King Krush, Anub'arak and Icehowl, there's, y'know, Majordomo Executus. For 8 drops, you get Al'Akir, Grom Hellscream, Gruul, both Ragnaroses, Tirion Fordring, Rhonin and Chromaggus. The worst of the bunch is Doomcaller, Fossilized Devilsaur, Anomalus, Eldritch Horror and Boogeymonster, and even then their stats are fair enough that you'll probably go 'oh well, that ain't too bad' instead of cursing the RNG gods for giving you a 6/6 for 10 mana. (4/5)
• Embrace the Shadows: At a glance, this is a bad card. Why would you want to waste a card slot for an Auchenai Soulpriest effect that only lasts a turn? Yes, it's two mana cheaper, but you lost the 3/5 body and the continuous effect. Well, as it turns out, Auchenai combos with Prophet Velen, Corrupted Healbot, Flash Heal and Darkshire Alchemist are a lot easier with four cards in your deck that enable it. Instead of being ultra-gimmicky, Auchenai decks are actually more stable and have more options to deal out insane amounts of face damage with their combos. It's like how every whirlwind effect in a Warrior deck is ultimately good. So yeah, not exciting on its own, but it enables an archetype. (3/5)
• Hooded Acolyte: The C'Thun card! The Hooded Acolyte is four-mana 3/6, which isn't a bad statline for a four-mana card. For every time a character is healed, C'Thun gets +1/+1. It's insane with things like Circle of Healing, and Priests already love healing their minions anyway with Northshire Cleric synergies and whatnot. What's utterly insane, though, if your opponent is a Shaman with a big board and a Healing Totem. I once buffed my C'Thun by 6 charges because of my opponent's Healing Totem healing a bunch of damaged totems and spirit wolves... without doing anything. A great card, for sure, even if it doesn't quite get that value all the time. 6 health is durable enough to withstand a lot of things on the early and mid game, though. (5/5)
• Shadow Word: Horror: A weird card. It destroys all minions below the attack of two for four mana, which is quite expensive. And Priests will kill their own Northshire Clerics and whatnot. Why are you not playing Holy Nova instead? For one mana more, you deal two damage to everything your opponent owns, and you heal your units. When is there a two-attack minion that doesn't die to Holy Nova anyway? And even if there's some insanely large two-attack minion (Wobbling Runts is the only one I can think of in standard) you could Cabal them. (1/5)
• Shifting Shade: A four-mana 4/3 with a deathrattle that copies a card from your opponent's deck and putting it into your hand. It's slapping Thoughtsteal onto a decent 4/3 body, and while it's not the best card out there, Shifting Shade is a decent card that's helped out by the existence of Museum Curator, which allows you to get Shifting Shade without putting it into your deck. Thoughtsteal isn't the best thing in the world, but it's fun and adds card advantage, plus as a half-decent deathrattle it can synergize with N'Zoth. I like this card. It's not super-great, sometimes you get useless cards like Totemic Might or Deadly Poison, but I like this card. (3/5)
• Darkshire Alchemist: Darkshire Alchemist is a simple card with an awesome effect. A five-mana 4/5 means you slap a Flash Heal onto a Yeti, basically. Which is far better than it initially seems. Restoring five health while getting a body on the board is great, and it synergizes will with things like Brann Bronzebeard, triggers Northshire Clerics and Hooded Acolytes, and can become a tactical 5-mana nuke with Auchenai Soulpriest/Embrace the Darkness. A solid card in any case. (5/5)
• Power Word: Tentacles: Velen's Chosen was 3 mana, give a minion +2/+4 and Spell Damage +1. It's absolutely broken as one of the best buffs in the game. Power Word Tentacles has one of the most insane artworks of the game, but it raises the cost of Velen's Chosen by two mana, and instead of Spell Damage, you get an additional two health. Yeah. Definitely not worth it. Easily one of the worst cards of the expansion. (1/5)
• Twilight Darkmender: It's a five mana 6/5, which means it's perfectly decent stats for its mana cost. If C'Thun has 10 attack, which is demonstratably easy, Twilight Darkmender restores a whopping ten health to your hero. And it's insane. The Twilight Darkmender basically helps Priest to survive without losing tempo. It can easily heal your hero to full health without crippling your deck by forcing it into a Reno Jackson deck, it can get doubled by Brann Bronzebeard, and that's not counting all the additional healing you can get with Darkshire Alchemists, Flash Heals and Justicar Trueheart. It's a bit underrated and I didn't think it would be too powerful when it comes out, but damn, it's pretty great and is one of the reason why a C'Thun Priest deck can easily outlast and survive more than C'Thun Druids. (5/5)
• Herald Volazj: Volazj is a weird card. It's a six mana 5/5 that summons a 1/1 copy of your other minions. Volazj's effect is cool, but is limited by the fact that your board space is kind of limited. It's cool to have, like, a second Thaurissan, Ysera or Ragnaros trigger, or to double the effects of Malygos or Velen, but very rarely will you have those cards on board at the same time, or to only have those two or three particularly powerful minions. And Herald Volazj costs too much if you want to do a combo anyway, so unless you get super-discounts courtesy of Thaurissan, Herald Volazj will probably only be played in super-gimmicky decks. (2/5)

Rogue Class Cards
Rogues lose Blade Flurry and a huge chunk of their existing meta decks, but the sheer amount of great minions and spells they receive in this expansion, including a great C'Thun minion, a great legendary and a lot of awesome solid minions and spells really help to make Combo-centric and Deathrattle-centric Rogues a thing. It's still a bit of an unstable class, but when Rogue decks perform well, holy fuck, they do perform well.

• Bladed Cultist: It's a one-mana 1/2, that, if comboed, becomes a 2/3. A one-mana combo minion means it can't be played on turn one, unless if you like have a Coin and can drop two Bladed Cultists on turn one. That happens like very rarely, though, and while it's a decent card, I don't really see running this card over something more stable like, well, literally every other one-drop out there. (2/5)
• Journey Below: For one mana, discover a Deathrattle card. Simple, sweet and elegant. A one-mana card that's actually worth it, unlike the Bladed Cultist, Journey Below is probably an auto-include card in Deathrattle/N'Zoth decks. And Rogue Deathrattle cards -- of which you get a higher chance of discovering -- are actually mostly pretty good! In addition to the three introduced in this expansion, there's also Tomb Pillager and Anub'arak. And all Deathrattles synergize with Unearthed Raptor and N'Zoth the Corruptor. And as a cheap combo trigger, it's a great card overall. (4/5)
• Undercity Huckster: A two-mana 2/2 that adds a random class card from your opponent's class to your hand. Basically a mini-Burgle that doesn't suck, and comes with a 2/2 body. A staple two-drop that helps to get you more cards, and more cards are definitely good! The Undercity Huckster ('huckster' is an awesome new addition to my vocabulary) is an pretty powerful tool for a two-drop. You probably want to dagger up in the second turn, which is fine. The Huckster can activate combos on later turns. Definitely a very solid card.(4/5) 
• Shadow Strike: Holy fuck this card! It's Backstab on crack, costing three mana but dealing five damage to an undamaged character. No, you can't hit face like you could with Eviscerate, but it's an insane control tool because, y'know, five damage is a lot of damage. More often than not, you trade up with Shadow Strike, and unlike Eviscerate you don't have to figure out how to pull that combo to increase 2 damage to 4 damage. And, yes, no face, but it's a great and powerful card nonetheless.(5/5)
• Southsea Squidface: Davy Jones is another Pirate for the Rogues to play with. He's a hilarious-looking card with a funky Cthulhu parrot, and as a four-mana 4/4 that basically casts Deadly Poison when it dies is insane value. And it helps with Pirate tribal synergy, which admittedly is a bit of a mess right now, but it's a damn good card nonetheless even if you're not playing Pirates. With this and Deadly Poison, you can still buff up that Assassin's Blade... it just takes a bit longer and you can't Blade Flurry, but that doesn't mean Rogues are giving up on weapon-buffing entirely. The Southsea Squidface is pretty good! (4/5)
• Xaril, Poisoned Mind: Xaril is a card that I thought was understatted and would be unplayable when it came out. A 3/2 is a statline for a two-drop, not a four-drop! It's like a Rogue-exclusive Toshley, except instead of Spare Parts, you get either a one-mana Shadowstep, Blessing of Might, Finicky Cloakfield, Holy Smite or Draw a Card. Which are actually pretty good, whichever of them you got. Xaril is cheap enough to be played as part of a string of comboes, and the Toxin cards are both impactful enough and help to trigger Comboes and make your Edwin grow larger and larger... and he comboes with your Raptors and N'Zoths. Easily one of the best legendaries of the set, hands down, though fitting Xaril in a good deck might take some tinkering. (5/5)
• Shadowcaster: For five mana, you get a 4/4 and a one-mana 1/1 copy of a friendly minion. Which means you get insane discounts on battlecry and deathrattle minions. Which triggers combos, which is good in Rogues. This is Herald Volazj done right, since you can recycle battlecries, and the one-cost minions are cheap and easy to get out when you want to. When you Shadowcaster with Brann, holy shit, you can get utterly batshit insane comboes. I once fought a Rogue that Shadowcaster'd their N'Zoth and, well, that was just insane.
• Thistle Tea: It's bad. For six mana, you draw a card and get two copies of it. The thing that makes Sprint so good is that you get four cards and you get the options from there. And while you don't exhaust your deck with Thistle Tea, you also get identical cards of something you have no control about. It could be good, sometimes, but the couple of times I tried Thistle Tea out it's absolutely underwhelming, and even when I got good cards the fact that it's three of the same card means that it generally isn't favourable for me. (1/5)
• Blade of C'Thun: Rogue's sole C'Thun card is insane. It's a nine-mana 4/4 that straight-up assassinates a minion and adds its attack and health to C'Thun. Some Rogue C'Thun decks just run two Blades of C'Thun as expensive removal, and on the off chance that they get to remove a Deathwing or an opponent's C'Thun, their own C'Thun is buffed to insane amounts. It's way too unreliable, I think, and Rogue C'Thuns won't ever be as stable as Druid, Priest, Warrior or even Mage C'Thuns, but it's still a pretty decent card whenever it strikes and manages to acquire value. (3/5)

Shaman Class Cards
Shamans don't lose a lot in the Standard rotation, but instead gained a crapton of powerful cards. Two of the cards from the Shaman lineup in this expansion are kind of duds, but the sheer amount of powerful tools they got -- extremely powerful ramping tools and a new gimmick in evolution -- meant that Shamans have no fucking need for C'Thuns or Forbidden cards. They're just a dominating force both on ladder and on the Arena, and easily one of the most powerful classes at the moment.

• Evolve: Evolution is one of the best cards that Shamans got in this expansion, and the fact that it's a one-mana spell makes it absolutely insane. Evolution basically is similar to the hero power of the League of Explorers boss Lady Naz'jar, replacing all your own minions by those of a cost higher... and unless you, like, got a Doomsayer, it's always great value. Shamans have a lot of things that can abuse this gimmick -- Tuskarr Totemic and Feral Spirit both drop two minions for three mana, and minions from this expansion like Thing from Below and Nerubian Prophet are 6-mana minions that you can cast for potentially free, meaning you could get a couple of seven-mana minions for like two or three mana tops. Granted, some Shaman minions are anti-synergy with this since all the Overload minions already have stats that outshine their mana cost, and turning a 7/7 Flamewreathed Faceless into a Booty Bay Bodyguard is dumb... but evolution also heals your damaged units, so it's far more versatile than it initially seems. And more often than not, that army of totems can suddenly attack next turn. It's RNG, but damn, evolution is just powerful and fun to use. (5/5)
• Primal Fusion: Give a minion +1/+1 for each of your totems. It's a cheap buff, but far too unreliable, really, to justify putting in your deck over other things. The concept is really cool, and it's another tool in the hypothetical Totem Shaman archetype... but the fact is you'd rather run far more stable spells or just cards like Draenei Totemcaller if you really want to get buffs from a large amount of totems. (1/5)
• Eternal Sentinel: Lava Shock's effect slapped on a solid minion. Eternal Sentinel is a solid minion even without his effect, a 3/2 for two mana, but the fact that it unlocks your overloaded mana crystals while giving board presence is simply just awesome. Not every Shaman deck will run the Eternal Sentinel, but it does help to alleviate some of the turns rendered awkward by overloading, and while you still can't go from turn-5 Doomhammer to turn-6 Fire Elemental since you're spending two mana for Eternal Sentinel, at least this time around you don't just play a simple four-mana drop. (4/5)
• Stormcrack: From its name, it seemed to be intended as a non-Face-Shaman version of Crackle. For the same amount of mana, you always deal 4 damage, but only to a minion. So you strike low... but only on minions. And you get overloaded by 1. Why would I run this over Lightning Bolt? Lightning Bolt is a card that, for the cost of one less damage, is cheaper by one mana with the flexibility of also hitting the enemy's face. (1/5)
• Flamewreathed Faceless: The MVP of the set for Shamans isn't the evolution mechanic, though that shit's cool as hell. No, it's the Flamewreathed Faceless, which has been hailed everywhere as the most insanely powerful tool in the Shaman's arsenal at the moment. It's a whopping 7/7 for four mana, with the Shaman only getting overloaded for 2. It's like the Fireguard Destroyer, but instead of being 4/6-7/6 for a single overloaded crystal, it's always 7/7. And a 7/7 on turn four is honestly nothing to laugh at. It forces enemies to trade a minimum of two minions into it, or waste one of the precious removal spells that is better deserved for the Al'Akirs and Ragnaroses coming on turn 8. One caveat is that the Flamewreathed Faceless is a horrible loss of stats when you use it in an evolve decks, but aggro shamans and arena shamans everywhere are finally making use of a card that embodies what overload should be -- sacrificing mana next turn for an insane tempo swing. And a 7/7 on turn 4 is as insane a tempo swing as can be. This card is literally everywhere for good reason. (5/5)
• Master of Evolution: A four-mana 4/5, again, a solid Yeti statline... that evolves a single unit. It's not as good as Evolve, obviously, but it adds an additional board presence. Most of what I said about Evolve applies here, and it's still a good card all around. And, again, it doesn't have overload. The Master of Evolution is just a powerful minion all around, and even if you just do something simple like transform a totem into a 3/2, it's still value on your point. (4/5)
• Hallazeal the Ascended: The Shaman legendary isn't anything special, but other than Al'Akir, Shaman legendaries have never really been spectacular. Hallazeal the Ascended is an Elemental Ascendant in the service of the Twilight's Hammer Cult, and he's a five-mana 4/6. It's not a bad statline, but his effect restores health to your hero whenever you deal damage with spells. This turns Lightning Storms and Elemental Destructions into spells that not only wipe the board, but also potentially heal your hero. Hallazeal is ultimately still too difficult and gimmicky to pull off, but damn, the couple of times that you get Hallazeal's effect to work powerfully will be such a huge tempo swing for you that it might win you the game. It's overshadowed by all the insanely powerful non-legendary Shaman cards in this expansion, though. (2/5)
• Hammer of Twilight: Theoretically, it's a powerful weapon that might be a great replacement for Doomhammer, because we all thought Doomhammer was getting nerfed. Turns out, Doomhammer didn't get nerfed, so there aren't a lot of Hammers of Twilight out there in the meta. It's still a good card, but it's just unplayed because it competes for a five-mana space for Doomhammer. The Hammer of Twilight is great, giving you a 4/2 weapon, basically Death's Bite, that summons a 4/2 minion upon death. And it doesn't have overload. It just turns out that, well, Doomhammer is so much better, which is kind of unfair since this is actually a damn good card. (4/5)
• Thing from Below: Yet another in Shaman's insane arsenal of good cards is this... thing. Just what race is that supposed to be? It's not a Faceless One, it's got the wrong arms to be a corrupted Nerubian or Markura, and it certainly isn't a Silithid or a Mantid. It's a Thing, all right. And why the fuck does this weird prawn-octopus-mantis thing synergize with Totems? Who the fuck knows? The Thing from Below is just such a bizarre card. It's a 5/5 Taunt that gets discounted for every Totem you have summoned this game. This includes the likes of Totem Golem and Flametongue Totem, and anything your Tuskarr Totemic summons, and people already play those cards anyway. And having a 5/5 Taunt that costs 1 mana is just utterly batshit crazy value. Thing from Below has literally won me games due to how economic it has been. How do you not play this card in any Shaman deck? Worst case scenario, even if you somehow didn't press the totem-creating button at all, a six mana 5/5 taunt is just a single attack point lower than Lord of the Arena. And you don't play Shaman without summoning at least a single totem, so you always get value with Ben Grimm here. (5/5)

Warlock Class Cards
Warlock get their zoo tools wiped out, and were in a sad place... but got a lot of new zoo tools. So they are in a happy place. They get a C'Thun synergy card and a Forbidden card, a couple of insane but kinda bad spells and a lot of zoo tools.

• Forbidden Ritual: Of course Warlocks get a Forbidden card. I mean, they are fucking Warlocks! Forbidden Ritual is simple -- spend all your mana, get that many 1/1's. But I said Stand Against Darkness is bad! Well, turns out that if you can just drop this any time you want and get however many tokens as the mana cost is, it's a lot better than to be forced to hold this until turn 5. It comboes very well with Knife Juggler -- who has proven himself to still be viable in any kind of zoo or aggro deck -- or the new Darkshire Councilman. Warlocks can definitely make good use of the tokens with Power Overwhelming, Defender of Argus, and so on and so forth. Of course, they're weak to AoE effects, but on the other hand Warlocks are good at filling up the board anyway so worst case scenario is that the Icky Tentacle swarm eat up one of your opponent's precious AoE's. Definitely one of the better tools Warlock received this expansion. (5/5)
• Possessed Villager: As I said with Infested Wolf, they're more careful now about giving sticky minions as neutrals. Possessed Villager is simple, a one mana 1/1 that leaves behind a 1/1 when it dies, and it's insanely great in zoo decks. Again, it triggers Darkshire Councilman and Knife Juggler, and it's not like Warlocks don't already have great one-drops in Voidwalker and Flame Imp. Possessed Villager trades up pretty nicely with Power Overwhleming, being rather disposable, and then triggering Juggler and Councilman when the Shadowbeast is summoned. No, it's nowhere as solid stat-wise as Voidwalker or Flame Imp, but it fills a nice niche in the Warlock's repertoire of cheap one-mana minions. (4/5)
• Darkshire Librarian: A two-mana 3/2, pretty standard. It discards a card upon entering and draws a card upon dying. Which is... just weird, honestly. Discarding a random card means that you might discard something crucial to your game plan, and Fist of Jaraxxus/Tiny Knight of Evil synergy certainly is not worth it. Plus you don't really need minions to draw cards as a Warlock -- just press your hero power. It would be different if Warlocks can choose which cards to discard, which would be a lot better... but as it is, this card is just bad. Cool artwork, though. (1/5)
• Renounce Darkness: What a freaking strange card! For two mana, you renounce all the evilness within you and switch all your Warlock cards into that of another class's... but those cards get discounted! I thought this is just another insane Trolden-esque card, but damn, sticking one of this in your deck certainly doesn't hurt as a backup plan. I mean, a Warlock's game plan is usually focused on swarming the board or whatever, but you can get an insane amount of value by gambling on Renounce Darkness. It's not always good, of course, but as everyone knows by and by Class Cards are decent, and obtaining their hero power as well means that things like weapon spell cards for Rogues will still be valuable. It's not very stable and probably isn't a card you want to use competitively, but you can't deny that it is fun as all hell. (3/5)
• Darkshire Councilman:A sleeper hit for sure. Everyone thought that this card would be too slow to really see play other than in Reno decks, and I do admit to thinking the same. But a three-mana with five health is difficult to remove unless you waste a Fireball on a 1/5, which no sane person would do. And, well, at the very least as a Warlock you should be able to trigger this quite easily. Killing off the Possessed Villager, playing Forbidden Ritual or Bilefin Tidehunter, Imp Gang Boss combos... Darkshire Councilman spirals out of control quite easily, and while it's not hard to remove by any means, usually it can get a couple of good trades in before your enemy manages to take it out -- and it almost always will take more than one card. (5/5)
• Spreading Madness: For three mana, deal 9 damage randomly on the board. Maddestest Bomber in spell form. Except you don't get a body that will for certain survive the onslaught the way Mad Bomber and Madder Bomber do. And neither of them are played, really, other than in arena -- but that's more for the body than anything. And with so many Warlock decks focused on summoning smaller minions, dealing 9 damage that could potentially wipe your own board clean is just dumb. In a Patron Warlock deck, maybe, with Tentacle of N'Zoth... but that won't work either I don't think, since you don't have other 'if a friendly minion takes damage' cards like Warrior, which was what made Patron Warrior so powerful. (1/5)
• Usher of Souls: The Warlock's C'Thun card is a cute gnome that apparently is Hearthstone's version of Nevermore. Pure C'Thun Warlocks don't really work that well, and really it's not this card's fault. It's quite good, actually. Usher of Souls is a great card, a 5/6 for 5 mana is fair, and buffs your C'Thun whenever a minion dies. Certainly far easier to pull off with a Warlock's tendencies to summon tokens and whantot... but that usually happens in the early game, and by turn five a good chunk of a Warlock's early-game arsenal is probably spent. And if you play C'Thun specific cards, they're usually quite durable ones, so... yeah, relying on the Usher of Souls to buff your C'Thun like the Druid's insane +3/+3 Arakkoa, or the extremely survivable Hooded Acolyte that buffs whenever something is healed (ergo remaining on the field), or the Blade of C'Thun that just murders huge things... this one is a great card, probably one that should be scaled down. But then it might just be broken. (3/5)
• Cho'gall: Cho'gall, the Warlock legendary, follows Wilfred Fizzlebang in being a legendary based on a warlock instead of a demon. (We don't even get a single demon this expansion!) Cho'gall is a sorta-kinda-important character from Warcraft II who ended up converting the formerly Horde-aligned Twilight's Hammer clan into C'Thun's service. So all those cultist dudes you see in this expansion? Totally Cho'gall's fault. Cho'gall is a seven mana 7/7, pretty vanilla stats, that causes the next spell to be cast from the hero's health total instead of from your mana. It's... interesting, since Warlocks are already happy with using their life force as a resource. Except you take a look at a Warlock's arsenal of spells and there really isn't any big spells that would really be worthwile to make use of Cho'gall's ability to cast. Shadowflame is decent, I guess, a free board clear for four health. Siphon Soul destroys a minion for a net loss of 3 health. Everything else kinda isn't worth it to use Cho'gall for, and using something like Twisting Nether or Doom will kinda hurt you for spending seven mana just to kill off said minion alongside with your enemy's board. Why not wait a turn then Nether? Great concept, but until there's a big Warlock spell that I want to use, like, an eight mana summon three random demons or some shit, Cho'gall's just going to be a bit of a sleeper card with an awesome effect but nothing to combo this with. (2/5)
• DOOM!: DOOM! is a ten mana card that's basically an upgraded Twisting Nether... that draws a card for each minion you destroy. It's bad. For two mana more, you possibly can mill yourself to death. Warlocks don't need card draw, again, already having a button they can tap, and they already have Twisting Nether as a total board clear for 8 mana. DOOM! is just inefficient and will mill your deck to death. Cool artwork, though. Definitely. (1/5)

Warrior Class Cards
Warriors get a C'Thun card, finally get a couple of Pirate cards, and a couple of replacements for the Whirlwindy effects that went away with the Standard rotation. Their capabilities for armouring up to insane levels have only been enhanced with their own C'Thun card, making control warrior as powerful as they had been before.

• Blood to Ichor: Deal one mana to a minion, and if it survives, summon the Mire Keeper's 2/2 slime. Kinda like Grobbulus's hero power in the Naxxramas campaign, but you summon the blob if the minion survives, a la Slam. A simple yet very flexible spell. You can reduce an enemy minion to a threshold that your Whirlwind effects kill it, or you can simply trigger Enrage effects and Patron effects on your own minions, whilst getting a free 2/2... which alone would already be decent value for 1 mana. Great card. (4/5)
• N'Zoth's First Mate: A pretty good card if you play it on turn 1. Having a 1/1 Pirate and a 1/3 weapon, basically a lesser version of the Paladin's Light's Justice, is great tempo on turn 1 and nowhere else. No Warrior would pass up on Fiery War Axe, especially on a weapon-oriented deck that a Pirate deck would be, which can make your second turn somewhat awkward. Having a cheap Pirate to easily play will definitely combo well with the Bloodsail Cultist or Kragg if you decide to run him, though, and the fact that Warriors are getting Pirates is really cool! More tribal synergies are cool. Now all we need are Pirates that interact with each other instead of just the weapon. (3/5)
• Blood Warriors: Three mana, add a copy of damaged friendly minions to my hand. It's a very inefficient Echo of Medivh. Yes, Echo costs one mana more, but you don't have to damage your friendly minion, so you end up paying four mana anyway if you're using Whirlwind. A very inefficient card, though flavour-wise it really is cool -- the orc's blood actually gets pulled out to create a copy of the orc! That's awesome. Shame the card ain't all that, though. (2/5)
• Bloodsail Cultist: Aww, the Bloodsail Cultist's cute! She's supposed to be mutated like Davy Jones's crew was in Pirates of the Caribbean, but she's just so cute even with that crab arm and tentacly hat. She's a three-mana 3/4, which is already good, and if you control a pirate, you can give your weapon +1/+1, basically a free Upgrade spell. With N'Zoth's First Mate you can guarantee a Pirate and a weapon, and with other Pirates that benefit or buff weapons it's definitely something to consider building a deck around. Worst case scenario, the Bloodsail Cultist is a vanilla three-mana 3/4 which isn't half bad. (4/5)
• Ravaging Ghoul: Warriors lose Death's Bite, but they gain Ravaging Ghoul, arguably an equivalent Whirlwind trigger. Yes, you can save that last Death's Bite charge and trigger the deathrattle until you have Grim Patrons and Frothing Berserkers on board, and it's less practical with Ravaging Ghoul, where you have to spend 3 mana to get it, but hey, you get a bonus 3/3 minion in the process. Goes without saying that the Ravaging Ghoul is the 'corrupted' version of the Unstable Ghoul, previously a staple card in Patron Warriors though this one deals damage upon entering the field instead of upon death. Ravaging Ghoul's a pretty cool card, and is extremely useful in most of my Warrior decks. (4/5)
• Bloodhoof Brave: Another really solid card. A four mana 2/6 with Taunt is already decent stats, being a more health-oriented Sen'jin, but it becomes a 5-attack monstrosity when damaged, so it definitely will force awkward trades. Woe betide you if your enemy manages to get Bolster onto this thing. Even if it soaks up something like a Fireball or a Black Knight, you're still happy since you likely have a second Bloodhoof Brave in your deck, as well as bigger, badder minions for whom this awesome Tauren just took a hit for. "I have an axe to grind" indeed -- that Warcraft III reference is just the icing on the cake. Yeah, definitely a really powerful card. (5/5)
• Tentacles for Arms: It's a bad card. A five-mana for a 2/2 weapon? Yeah, Tentacles for Arms replenishes itself every turn, and from a flavour standpoint I guess it's cool since it's Garrosh's arm that transforms instead of a weapon... but the only real time that this is useful is in a Fatigue Wars matchup where this basically becomes an ultra-expensive and inefficient Hunter's hero power, and really with the ability to Armor Up (preferably with Justicar Trueheart) you really don't need this card to win. It's only useful in a very specific situation, but most of the time it's honestly quite useless.(1/5)
• Ancient Shieldbearer: Despite her name, the Ancient Shieldbearer has more in common with the Shieldmaiden instead of the Shieldberarer. For seven mana, you get a 6/6 and 10 Armor, which is like the most insane Armor gain card that Warriors have. She's a very powerful tool, and Warrior's sole C'Thun card. Because, yes, she is just that good. Combined with so many other Warrior tools to gain Armor (Justicar Trueheart, Shield Block, Bash) Ancient Shieldbearer is a powerful tool in Control C'Thun decks, effectively making those warriors almost unkillable. Get her off with Brann Bronzebeard and holy shit, twenty Armor! (5/5)
• Malkorok: Malkorok is a very appropriate card for Garrosh, being one of Garrosh's bodyguards or something that got corrupted when Garrosh himself was corrupted by the Heart of Y'Shaarj (which is a bit of a missed opportunity that it wasn't made into a card, but whatever). Malkorok is a seven-mana 6/5, with the Battlecry of equipping a random weapon. Most weapons cost around 2-4, with Light's Justice being the only loser, and Cursed Blade being the only real harmful one to you. Fuck Cursed Blade. Literally every other weapon that Malkorok will give you is definitely worth 2-4 mana, so you almost will always get your 7 mana's worth. If you get Gorehowl or Doomhammer, well, GG. Malkorok is simple but effective. Just like most orcs are, really. (4/5)

Neutral Cards
While a good chunk of the neutral cards are not spectacular, C'Thun and most of his cultists are neutral cards. C'Thun is a powerful build-around legendary that every single player gets for free, making him a particularly omnipresent legendary in the metagame as newer and poorer players get to play around with C'Thun before going to the more advanced decks that Standard has to offer. The other three old gods... well, Yogg-Saron and N'Zoth at least... also provide really powerful deck-building options, enabling a lot of new archetypes. Whispers of the Old Gods also introduced several 'corrupted' versions of older minions, both rotated out and still present in the game, with variable degrees of usage in the metagame. Several particularly solid minions have gone on and filled the voids that the Standard rotation had created. I honestly thought that the set could have used less corrupted older cards and had more Old God related cards, but all in all it's a well-designed set.

• Shifter Zerus: A one-mana legendary that continually shifts in your hand into random minions. It's probably not a good card, but it's a fun little card! It's an interesting legendary, and while it probably won't win you games, there are chances that it might just transform into great minions like Sylvanas or Tirion or Yogg-Saron or a powerful taunter just at the right time. It's also got the most adorable artwork in the entire game. It just tries to hard to, like, summon eldritch unspeakable horrors but it just looks so adowable! Shame you won't see his cute mug in play since he transforms, but d'awww. (3/5)
• Tentacle of N'Zoth: A one-mana 1/1 that deals one damage to every minion upon death. I'm a bit puzzled, really, what I can use this tentacle for. It deals with large swarms of one-health Silver Hand Recruits, Imps, Icky Tentacles and Murlocs, yes, but there are far more practical ways to do a board clear. The Tentacle of N'Zoth is also likely to be triggered by your opponent, making it die at a disadvantageous moment for you. I suppose it can find a home in Patron decks as another Whirlwind trigger, but there are already so much good Whirlwind triggers that one you cannot control is just not worth playing. (2/5)
• Zealous Initiate: Hello, Starcraft reference! The Zealous Initiate is a one-mana 1/1 that buffs an ally by 1/1 when it dies. You might use it in a Deathrattle deck, maybe Raptor it or whatever. It's a card that you won't ever want to play on turn one because, well, it kinda sucks on an empty board. Ultimately all classes have far better options, and Classic neutral minions like the nerfed Leper Gnome and Argent Squire are more consistently good anyway. My attempts to try this card out as a Leper Gnome replacement have since fizzled out. (2/5)
• Beckoner of Evil: The Beckoner of Evil is solid stats, a 2/3 for two mana, basically River Crocolisk, and adds +2/+2 to C'Thun. The biggest weakness of a C'Thun deck is that you're ultimately just playing vanilla minions that buff C'Thun, while your opponent is probably playing minions with more powerful effects and solid stats, so all you can hope is to trade effectively and draw from your two-drop to three-drop to four-drop and so on. Beckoner of Evil is very solid, of course, but when did you really see River Crocolisk being played? Like most C'Thun cards, it's great in a C'Thun deck but is probably a card that could be cut in hybrid C'Thun decks. (3/5)
• Bilefin Tidehunter: A deceptively average card that turned out to be, hey, pretty damn good. Everyone thought it was a variation of the Basic Murloc Tidehunter, only instead of a 1/1 Murloc it summons a 1/1 Ooze with taunt. Which isn't a Murloc. People cried foul over the lack of Murloc synergy, but it turns out a 2/1 and a 1/1 Taunt for two mana is great use in Zoo decks and Aggro decks, and even in Murloc decks it prevents 1/1's from returning when you do Anyfin Can Happen. It's a lot better than it seems, and an actually decent early-game card. Which is fine by me, because I love the art on this thing. Look at that Bilefin Murloc! He just looks so fucking crazy! (4/5)
• Duskboar: Hey, look, it's Magma Rager! But one mana less and one attack less! The Duskboar is a bit cheaper than the Magma Rager, and being a Beast means that you might actually have two-mana Huffers if you have a Tundra Rhino on play. But ultimately having only one health for a two-drop really doesn't make this card deserving of a slot in your deck. Hearthstone is unique enough that having this drop off a Webspinner or Piloted Shredder might make you shrug and go 'eh, could be worse', but it's certainly one of the worse cards in the expansion. It's corrupted Huffer, in that it absolutely sucks for the player that gets him instead of the opposing player. (1/5)
• Nat, the Darkfisher: Concept-wise, it's a cool reversal of Nat Pagle, one of the classic legendaries. His artwork is also pretty col! Execution wise... 50% chance to draw a card for your opponent totally isn't worth the 2/4 statline (which is barely higher than most 2-drops anyway), and possibly drawing a single card a turn is honestly far more beneficial to your enemy. He would probably be better as a 4/2, because that way he's at least a threat. But as he is, he's easily one of the worst legendaries of the set, with only the Boogeymonster beating him in this regard. (1/5)
• Twilight Geomancer: A two-mana 1/4 Taunt that gives your C'Thun taunt. Generally C'Thun is meant for a finisher, and it's kind of rare if you want C'Thun to have Taunt. There are times when a giant 15/15 Taunt might just save you from getting charged so you can deal that last 4 or 5 damage to the wounded enemy hero, but that doesn't stop the enemy from Fireballing your face. Or Polymorphing/Hexing/BGH-ing your C'Thun. Hell, it actually makes your C'Thun vulnerable to Black Knight, which saw a huge resurgence in the metagame thanks to Twin Emperor Vek'lor. The Twilight Geomancer is not bad on paper, but good C'Thun decks really need to make the best they could with the 30 cards they have -- C'Thun minions have solid stats, but very few have any decent game-swing effects, and while the Twilight Geomancer is a Silverback Patriarch for one less mana (they're just shitting on that poor monkey, aren't they) she's ultimately too weak a card, and you're better off playing a better two-drop. (1/5)
• Twisted Worgen: The Worgen Infiltrator gets tentacles, one more cost and one more attack! The Twisted Worgen is just that, a very simple card. It's decent in Aggro decks, just like how its uncorrupted counterpart was, but it's not going to be an auto-include by any means.(3/5)
• Am'gam Rager: At least Magma Rager could go face if it somehow survives behind a taunt or something. A 1/5 for 3 mana... I mean, I suppose you could Inner Fire it or Hobgoblin it, but come on. Obviously a joke card. (1/5)
• Disciple of C'Thun: This Pandaren apparently commands lightning bolts and is like a C'Thun fanatic. Despite the lack of tentacles. For three mana, you get a 2/1 that deals two damage anywhere... definitely a far superior Argent Horserider, who can't hit minions behind Taunt, and is a three mana 2/1 that deals 2 damage... the Disciple of C'Thun just deals it directly instead of using an attack. The Disciple is fragile, but definitely one of the best C'Thun cultist cards. (5/5)
• Silithid Swarmer: A 3/5 minion for 3 mana, the Silithid Swarmer gains an extra health point from the standard 3/4 for a condition... that it can't attack unless your hero attacks this turn. The Silithid Swarmer doesn't really justify you putting it in your deck, even for classes that can attack every turn with their hero powers like Rogues and Druids. Paladins, Warriors and Shamans can't guarantee a weapon equipped when the Silithid is on board, either. It's a lot easier to trigger Silithid Swarmer than Eerie Statue or Ancient Watcher, but it's not a big tempo gain either. Just like Argent Watchman, it's not worth the hassle and there are way more powerful three-drop minions than this thing that can't guarantee an attack every turn. It's not even a beast! I mean, yeah, Silithids are sentient, but Princess Huhuran is a beast! What gives? Consistency, people! (1/5)
• Spawn of N'Zoth: Aww, she's adorable. The Spawn of N'Zoth is a three-mana 2/2 that, when dies, gives you a free Mark of the Wild buff. Far, far more efficient than Wisps of the Old Gods, and you can do your Deathrattle combos with her daddy, N'Zoth himself, or with Raptors in a rogue deck. But ultimately, a 2/2 for 3 mana is kind of a bad tempo play for so little impact, and it's relatively easy to play around the Spawn. I tried making her work. I really did. She got value more often than the Zealous Initiate, but ultimately there are so many more useful and stable Deathrattle cards out there. (2/5)
• Squirming Tentacle: A three-mana 2/4 with Taunt, the Squirming Tentacle is basically the mid-way between the crappy Silverback Patriarch and the Fierce Monkey, while losing the Beast tag. It's still not particularly good, really. An okay card in Arena if you don't have any better alternatives, but I don't see this played over any of the Taunt minions already in the game. (2/5)
• Twilight Elder: Twilight Elder is a three-mana 3/4, basically Spider Tank stats, that gives C'Thun a +1/+1 at the end of your every turn. It's a bit slow, and a bit of a double-edged sword. On the other other hand, the Twilight Elder (based on Millhouse Manastorm in his Twilight's Hammer phase) has the potential to snowball for the entire game and just buff C'Thun to unimaginable heights. On the other hand... it's just a 3/4 has no real impact on the board, and sometimes you only get a +1/+1 buff, while almost every card add +2/+2. Druids get away with Twilight Elder far less than other classes due to being able to Innervate him out on turn 1 where nothing can contest it, but a lot of less C'Thun-focused decks cut out this card. It's not bad... it's just not good enough. (3/5)
• Aberrant Berserker: Amani Berserker's bigger, tentaclier brother is a four-mana 3/5 that gains two attack when enraged, so it goes from like a 3/5 to at most a 5/4... which actually is kinda bad value for four mana. The original Amani Berserker. is a solid two-drop initially as a 2/3, whereas the Aberrant Berserker is a subpar four-drop initially as a 3/5 instead of a 4/5. And, well, Enrage Warrior decks have far superior options. Sorry, mon. (2/5)
• Blackwater Pirate: A four-mana 2/5 Pirate that gives your weapons a 2-mana discount. Which really is going to apply once, because you don't exactly equip a weapon every turn. It's not the worst card out there, but it's hard to play if you don't have any weapons in your hand, and generally can lead to some awkward plays thanks to the rather inefficient four-mana cost of this card. (2/5)
• C'Thun's Chosen: The other really good C'Thun card is C'Thun's Chosen, hailed by some as the next Piloted Shredder. While they are both four-drops, C'Thun's Chosen is a lot more fragile though definitely more balanced than Piloted Shredder. C'Thun's Chosen is a four-mana 4/2 with Divine Shield, and has a battlecry of giving your C'Thun +2/+2. She's a pretty decent minion, a slightly scaled-up Scarlet Crusader, and is a pretty decent minion to have on the board on turn four. She's just a solid minion, really, just like most C'Thun cultists, but having that extra Divine Shield really helps her to trade better and survive more of your enemy's onslaught. (5/5)
• Cyclopian Horror: This ugly-looking thing is a four-mana 3/3 with Taunt that gaints a health for every enemy minion. Against decks that swarm you it's great, but it needs at least two enemy minions to become a Sen'jin Shieldmasta, and those two minions could be huge dudes like, say, the Twin Emperors, against which a Sen'jin statline isn't really going to do much. Or it could balloon up into a 3/8 against a board of Murlocs or Icky Tentacles. A very situational card, really, that has the potential to be really good or just plain sucky. And I'd rather play something more stable than this. (2/5)
• Eater of Secrets: Eater of Secrets is a very spindly Faceless One that will grow wildly is faced against a Mysterious Challenger deck, so it might just be a tool to be used in Wild. In Standard it certainly is shit unless the game introduces far better Secrets for other classes. For four mana, a 2/4 is insanely bad tempo, so playing the Eater of Secrets unless your enemy has a secret is just a bad play. And only one-third of the classes even have Secrets, and even less than that plays Secrets at all. More Anti-Secret tools are cool, but unlike Kezan Mystic, the Eater of Secrets is just too weak if played without enemy Secrets. For a single Secret, which is most of the you'll play this fellow, you turn it into a 3/5 after destroying their secret, which is still subpar for a four-drop... though you do get rid of their Secret, so it evens out. Of course, against an activated Mysterious Challenger deck you turn into a four-mana 7/9 which is utterly batshit crazy. But other than countering a specific archetype, the Eater of Secrets is pretty shitty. (2/5)
• Twisted Kobold: A four-mana 2/2? Simply for an extra Spell Damage? The Twisted Kobold's art is insane, but unlike his uncorrupted brother, the Kobold Geomancer, the Twisted Kobold just loses so much stats for his advantage, and two Spell Damage is not worth such a stupidly low-statted minion. The Jungle Moonkin is a far better alternative and that's a card that gives your opponent spell damage too. Nah, literally every single other Spell Damage minion out there is better than this stupid rat. (1/5)
• Faceless Shambler: The Shambler is a four mana taunt that will copy a friendly minion's Attack and Health. It is comparable to the Faceless Manipulator, but is a far inferior version of the Faceless Manipulator. I mean, sure it has Taunt from the get-go, but for one mana less it loses the flexibility of copying enemy minions, or to gain the effect. Yeah, you could use it to copy your Giants and Eerie Statues and Ancient Watchers and just get a taunt straight on board, but do you know what you can play for four mana? Defender of Argus, which taunts up two minions and gives them a +1/+1 buff to boot. The Shambler does none of that, and a silence leaves it a 1/1 instead of just the same minion without the Argus buff. Nah, he's bad.(1/5)
• Infested Tauren: The Infested Tauren is a Starcraft joke card. He's also a poor man's Sludge Belcher, based on a corrupted version of the already-bad Tauren Warrior. The Infested Tauren is a four-mana 2/3 with Taunt, that summons a 2/2 Slime upon death. Unlike Sludge Belcher, however, the 2/2 Slime has no Taunt, so this isn't that kind of a sticky minion. It's more in line with Harvest Golem, except the initial body has a Taunt and... Harvest Golem is one mana cheaper. Infested Tauren is just waaaaay too slow and understatted for a four drop. I could easily see him being a 3/3 Taunt that summons a 2/2 Slime and still see the same amount of play, which is little to none. (3/5)
• Midnight Drake: The Twilight Drake's reverse brother, Midnight Drake just swaps things around, being a 1/4 that gains attack based on the size of your head. The pros is that, of course, it doesn't die to Earth Shock... but it's way more fragile. It's a conditional buff, and while most of the time you get a 3/4 or a 4/4 for four mana, the former being kinda bad, even if you buff the Midnight Drake to like 7/4 or 8/4 it still dies to most four-drop minions. That said, though, I've put Midnight Drake in some of my Warlock decks and my Dragon Paladin deck and enjoyed some success with it. Plus this is another card with awesome artwork. It's a cheaper Volcanic Drake, and while Volcanic Drake isn't played that much, Midnight Drake might help fill out a couple of slots here and there. (3/5)
• Polluted Hoarder: Loot Hoarder's punnier and insaner cousin, A 4/2 for four mana with Deathrattle to draw a card. An alternative to the cheaper and easier-to-trigger Loot Hoarder, really, and while a 4/2 might be good for aggro decks, ultimately if you want aggro tools there are superior options, and if you want a four-mana card draw the Gnomish Inventor gets it with a battlecry, a far more stable drawing option. (2/5)
• Twilight Summoner: The Twilight Summoner is a four mana 1/1 that dies to summon a 5/5. It's a slower yet potentially more powerful version of the Nerubian Egg, and unlike the Egg, it can attack. Why is it nowhere as good as a Nerubian Egg? Well, not being played on turn two is a start. It's a bit too slow, and Nerubian Egg's main draw is that it's cheap and discourages AoE's while cannot be pinged. The Twilight Summoner dies to any ping, and the 5/5 isn't that big of a threat on turn 5, whereas a 4/4 on turn 3 is quite powerful. The Twilight Summoner gives great value if you copy its deathrattle with Unearthed Raptor, though, and is a decent choice in N'Zoth or Shadowcaster decks. (3/5)
• Corrupted Healbot: Like the Twilight Summoner, the Corrupted Healbot kinda apes Zombie Chow in mechanism, but where Zombie Chow is a one-drop with the stats of a two-drop, whose deathrattle of healing the opponent hero could be rendered irrelevant if they're still in full health (likely to be the case by turn 2 or 3), the Corrupted Healbot, which is an X-TREEM version of the ever-popular Ancient Healbot, is a five mana 6/6, barely higher than a Pit Fighter... that heals your opponent for a whooping 8 health. Yeah, you just Antique Healbot'd their face. The tempo gain is nowhere as grand as Zombie Chow, and the only reason you want to play Corrupted Healbot is in an Auchenai deck, where you get a five-mana 6/6 that deals damage to your opponent's face, which is Leper Gnome on crack. It's tough to pull off, though, thanks to the Healbot's high cost and the fact that your opponent can just pop it for a quick refreshment. (2/5)
• Crazed Worshipper: A five-mana 3/6 with Taunt that buffs C'Thun by +1/+1 every time it takes damage. Pretty good in Warrior, and moderately decent in other decks. A 3/6 Taunt for five mana has merely decent stats, and really only serves to stall, and doesn't threaten the board enough. It's great if your opponent is forced to trade into it with 1/1's and 2/1's, but by turn 5 generally your opponent can probably do a two-to-one trade into this and maybe even have minions left over. It's not unplayable, but it's got a stat total similar to the five-mana Booty Bay Bodyguard, and that is a card that is universally panned. (3/5)
• Cult Apothecary: Ancient Healbot is the most reliable neutral healing card, but with it gone thanks to the rotation, Blizzard tried to include something more conditional. Cult Apothecary is a five-mana 4/4, sturdier than the Healbot, that heals your hero for 2 health for every enemy your opponent has. Your opponent must have four minions for you to get a Healbot effect, and if your opponent has four minions and all you can do is drop this thing, you're playing the game wrong. See, you generally drop Ancient Healbot after you traded and stabilized a bit, or when you're desperate and losing anyway. With Cult Apothecary you're forced to have a full enemy board before healing, and spending five mana means that you can't Cult Apothecary into a AoE spell unless you're on turn 10, and by that point Holy Nova won't clear a board, really. Dunno. I just feel this card is sorta bad. (2/5)
• Darkspeaker: Man, epic cards are weird. Darkspeaker is a 5-mana 3/6 that swaps stats with a friendly minion when it comes into play. You can basically have the 3/6 statline be put into someone ready to attack, but a five-mana 3-attack charger isn't that good. You can heal something, I suppose, or make an aura minion like Raid Leader, Lightwell or Murloc Warleader more durable, but that's in exchange for sacrificing the Darkspeaker body. It's just a weird, awkward card that I don't see any justification to spend 5 mana for his effect. (2/5)
• Psych-o-Tron: Annoy-o-Tron is out of Standard, but he's such an iconic card that it's a given that Blizzard will try to sneak him in. A five-mana 3/4 with Taunt and Divine Shield is... just right as Annoy-o-Tron's big brother. Psycho here is like a mini-Sunwalker. He's probably not going to see that much play with mech decks not being a thing anymore, but I've seen him a couple of times in Wild Mech decks, and it's half-decent in Warrior Taunt and Paladin Divine Shield decks, though it really won't do anything special, it's a solid card. (3/5)
• Validated Doomsayer: Speaking of weird epic cards, the Doomsayer is happy that his big doomy prophecies are finally coming true, and he's just so insanely happy! He no longer destroys the board, but instead costs 3 mana more and gains 7 attack by your next turn. It's the same race for your opponent to kill the 0/7 minion before the effect triggers on your turn, which is absurdly easy on turn five, really. And having a 7/7 (or, let's be honest, like a 7/2 if your opponent doesn't kill Doomy) isn't worth the risk of really doing nothing but let your opponent do free, unpunished attacks for a turn. Plus Validated Doomsayer is vulnerable to the Cabal Shadow Priest, so yeah, it's honestly just bad. When you pull it off it could be good, but most of the time it's just whatever. (2/5)
• Ancient Harbinger: Tutor cards are one of the most combo-enabling cards in other card games Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh. In particular metagames you just wait for tutor cards and discount cards and just pull out your winning condition and OTK the enemy, causing lots of tutor cards to end up getting banned. It's difficult to really make good tutor cards in Hearthstone, and anyway the deck size is generally small enough, and with the new metagame you're likely to draw to fatigue anyway. Ancient Harbinger is a six-mana 4/6, barely stronger stats than a four-drop, that draws your 10-drop minion at the start of your next turn. It's not even guaranteed, and it has to survive the next turn... and damned if your opponent isn't going to try their best to murder this thing. Though you could argue that it probably soaked up a removal, it's still kinda ineffective as a tutor card. And in any case, you're going to have to wait for four more turns to play that N'Zoth or C'Thun anyway, so why bother? Just draw your Old God win condition like a normal person. (1/5)
• Corrupted Seer: The Corrputed Seer has a cool artwork. The Coldlight Oracle buffs Murlocs, so this Corrupted Seer attacks all non-Murlocs. It's a six-mana 2/3, insanely bad stats and is really just Consecration slapped onto the Coldlight Oracle body. It's cool when you put it that way, but I don't think it's good because it damages all your non-Murloc minions too, and sometimes you don't want that. It could be useful, but I honestly think this is so expensive especially for a Murloc deck, which tend to want to swarm the board with small, cheap minions that buff each other. (1/5)
• Mukla, Tyrant of the Vale: King Mukla gets corrupted as well! He's still a 5/5, but instead of costing three mana and giving your opponent Bananas, Mukla the Tyrant is six mana and gives you bananas. A wee bit overpriced, I think, and for that he probably won't see much play, but he's definitely in your favour and won't allow your opponent to punish you with Banana combos the way his uncorrupted version would. He's a Beast, so Druids and Hunters probably could find a home for him somewhere. I don't particularly care, though, and while he isn't bad, he is one of the more boring legendaries of the set. (3/5)
• Nerubian Prophet: At a glance Nerubian Prophet is kinda boring and dumb. It's a six-mana card with 4/4, and gets a discount every turn it's in your hand. Dropping a 4/4 for less than 3 mana is great value... but the Nerubian Prophet is ultimately just a 4/4 that does not do anything, and waiting a long time just to drop a 4/4 means that your opponent probably has four-drops that can easily deal with the Nerubian Prophet. But what it is useful for really is in Evolve Shaman. You drop a six-drop for less mana than you should, and then evolve it cheaply to get a mighty seven-drop minion, and getting a War Golem for like one mana is not a bad play. Ultimately kind of too gimmicky, though I had fun with the Nerubian. I once got a Chillmaw off evolving a Nerubian Prophet, which is definitely value. (3/5)
• Scaled Nightmare: Man, what a cool artwork! And what a gimmicky card! A six-mana 2/8 that doubles its attack at the start of your turn? Well, it becomes a 4/8 on your next turn, an 8/8 on the next, and a 16/8 on the next. Rogues and Priest can have this dude snowball, with Cold Blood (and maybe Conceal) for Rogues turning Scaled Nightmare into a 12/8 on the next turn, and Priests turning him into a 16/8 by Inner Firing him after summoning him. It's way too gimmicky to make work, though, and as a 2/8 it gets stolen by Cabal Shadow Priest, and as a huge thing it still won't go past Taunt and can be removed easily. It's still a lot better than the damned Boogeymonster, but it's just not that great of a card. (2/5)
• Skeram Cultist: A six-mana 7/6 that buffs C'Thun by +2/+2. Solid minion, threatens the board with a high attack, but still quite easy to remove. It's a reverse Boulderfist Ogre, but is utterly outclassed by Dark Arakkoa in Druid decks, and is definitely one of the weaker C'Thun cards that people replace with backup plan to make their decks less C'Thun-centric. It's not bad, it just doesn't do enough. And people complain why Prophet Skeram, a boss in Ahn'Qiraj, isn't a legendary, which I think was 99% of the feedback on this card. "It should be a more powerful legendary!" Oh and apparently the Skeram Cultist (and the Eternal Sentinel, and the Twin Emperors) is also not a Beast. So Huhuran's the only weird one of the Silithid bunch. (2/5)
• Bog Creeper: The Fen Creeper got larger, and the little gnome is buddies with him! Not much to say about the Bog Creeper, really. It's a 7-mana 6/8 Taunt, fully decent stats for seven mana. Won't see it anywhere in Constructed I don't think, but really good in Arena. (3/5)
• Grotesque Dragonhawk: The Windfury Harpy from the Classic Set is like a mana cheaper for one less attack. A 7-mana 5/5, even with Windfury, just has way too little stats. It's a Beast, though, and adding it to the big Beast pool kind of makes it relevant thanks to cards like Ram Wrangler, Webspinner and Infest. It's still a subpar card, though sometimes you want a subpar late-game card as opposed to an early-game card. And with Tundra Rhino and Beast synergy the Grotesque Dragonhawk certainly has potential to outshine its uncorrupted counterpart... but still, a bad card. (1/5)
• Hogger, Doom of Elwynn: Hogger got crazy! He's a seven-mana 6/6 that summons a 2/2 Taunt Gnoll when he's injured. See, Boogeymonster, this is how you make effect triggers. DoomHogger is not the best legendary out there, but he's definitely annoying to kill. Unless you Hex/Polymorph/BGH it, it's guaranteed to spawn a 2/2 Taunt Gnoll. Warriors can make great use of their own Whirlwind effects to trigger DoomHogger, and while it's not as spammable as Patrons, it's certainly a decent lategame card Warriors can just throw out to further build their board. Doom Hogger and Grim Patrons certainly counter C'Thun, absorbing a decent amount of C'Thun's eyeball blasts and spawning more minions to absorb said blasts. That said, still too gimmicky to really be good, but definitely not bad. (3/5)
• Twin Emperor Vek'lor: The Twin Emperors is basically your new Dr. 7 in C'Thun decks. By turn seven, unless you play like a double-Blades-Rogue-C'Thun, you probably already buffed your C'Thun to 10 attack unless you're doing something absolutely wrong -- all you need to do is to play two buff cards, and then you drop Twin Emperor Vek'lor and get two 4/6's with Taunt. With Brann, you get three. Twin Emperor Vek'lor is just an awesome card that stops enemies down cold, and they usually take a whole turn to clean Vek'lor and his buddy Vek'nilash, allowing you to spend a couple of turns dropping more threats or just drawing to C'Thun. Vek'lor doesn't have much in lieu of face damage like Dr. Boom does, but damn, it's a powerful card nonetheless, and I've won games simply because of this card just regaining control and never letting go. And as one of the final bosses in Ahn'Qiraj before you face C'Thun himself, it's only appropriate this is reflected in the game. (5/5)
• Doomcaller: The Doomcaller is an eight-mana C'Thun card with 7/9, a slightly below-average statline for his cost, but it buffs C'Thun by +2/+2 and shuffles it into your deck if it's dead. The thing is, most ways to remove C'Thun revolve around not killing it. Removal cards like Hex, Polymorph, Entomb and Mind Control doesn't count as C'Thun dying. And while some games do run long enough for you to reach C'Thun, play it and have it die... but that means Doomcaller sits dead in your hand until you play it as a backup, and then you have to draw C'Thun again... then play it again... wouldn't you be better off including an alternate win condition instead of relying on Doomcaller? Cool that this card exists, but it's very impractical in real practice. (2/5)
• Eldritch Horror: A simple 8-mana 6/10 without text. Won't ever be put into decks, but you won't be too sad if you got this dude off Evolve or Forbidden Shaping or Unstable Portal. In contrast, though, the Klaxxi Amber-Weaver is only two attack less for half the mana price, setup notwithstanding. Cool art, but bad card. (1/5)
• The Boogeymonster: The worst legendary in the game, dare I say it. It's also ugly as sin and has an utterly moronic name. The Boogeymonster makes Gruul look good, and Gruul is mostly treated as a 'well, if you have it, use it until something better comes along' Legendary for budget players. Gruul is 8-mana 8/8 that will consistently gain +1/+1 every turn. Boogeymonster is an 8-mana 6/7, the statline of a generic 6-drop, which only gains +2/+2 if it attacks and kills a minion. It doesn't even get the buff if the enemy minions attacks into it and dies. It can only conceivably get the buff in the following turn, and that's if your opponent isn't smart enough to either remove this ugly fucker or get rid of all their token minions. And even then, a 6/7 for an 8-drop? I'd rather play the Eldritch Horror. An utter disgrace of a legendary card -- at least other bad legendaries are fun to play or have unique effects. Gets my vote for worst card of the expansion. (1/5)
• Blood of the Ancient One: One of the most insane gimmicky cards out there, the Blood of the Ancient One is awesome in concept, and I'm happy a card like this exists. Two 9/9's that, if they survive until the next turn, combine into a single 30/30 minion that one-shots your enemy most of the time. In practice, though, it's far more practical to have two 9/9's on the board instead of a single 30/30 -- your opponent will need two removal cards to deal with two 9/9's as opposed to a single card for the 30/30 minion. There's so much that can deal with such a big dude. Hex, Polymorph, Doomsayer, Big Game Hunter, even a couple of taunts in the way can stop the Ancient One from causing lethal if your opponent somehow does not remove one of the Bloods. The fact that a single blood is 9-mana means you're going to have to use insane shenanigans to pull off dropping two Bloods in the same turn. A cool card for the sheer pride of managing to pull this off, and there are a couple of decks built around it, but ultimately far too impractical to pull off to be any kind of competitive. The one or two times that you win with the Ancient One will be a story worth telling, though. (1/5)
• Soggoth the Slitherer: Soggoth is a very average legendary. People who hate him say he's as bad as Nat the Darkfisher and Boogeymonster, while those who like him exalt him like he's the second coming of Dr. Boom. Soggoth is a 5/9 for nine mana, which is horrendous for that statline, but he has both Taunt and Hexproof (unable to be targeted by Spells and Hero Powers), so it forces your enemy to remove Soggoth with minion trading or AoE spells. And it definitely delays the enemy's game plan, with Soggoth's five attack either killing or severely damaging most of what trades into him. He's probably one of the most effective taunters out there, but that's all he ultimately does, and I really thought Soggoth could do with a couple more stats in either Health or Attack. It's not a bad card, though. (3/5)
• Deathwing, Dragonlord: Deathwing the Dragonlord is similar with the original Deathwing, a ten-mana 12/12. The problem with vanilla Deathwing is that while you wipe the board, you also discard your entire hand, and if Deathwing dies to BGH you're just fucked. Deathwing the Dragonlord doesn't wipe the board, but he also doesn't destroy your hand. And if he gets BGH'd or whatever, well, he'll pull every dragon in your hand into play. Which is both a blessing and a curse. It's always great value, but a fair amount of dragons are only good if their battlecries activate. Twilight Guardian, Twilight Drake and Midnight Drake lose a significant amount of their stats without battlecries. And while you get bodies with Dragon Consort, Azure Drake, Drakonid Crusher, Alexstrasza, Onyxia and Nefarian, you also lose potentially beneficial battlecries. The always-valuable targets for Deathwing the Dragonlord are Ysera, Malygos, Chromaggus, Chillmaw, Hungry Dragon and vanilla Deathwing; the first four have effects that happen at the end of turn or are continuous, while the latter two have detrimental effects. Ultimately, though, summoning even two or three dragons for free is still value, and while you lose some battlecries, Deathwing the Dragonlord is ultimately a powerful tool to vomit out your hand and summon a ton of dragons. And besides, who really cares if Onyxia doesn't get to do her battlecry? Free 8/8 on the board! Only the Twilight Drake and Midnight Drake really end up being useless if they're pulled into the field, so, um, maybe don't include them in your Dragonlord deck. (4/5)
• Faceless Behemoth: Yeah, a vanilla 10/10 for 10 isn't what you're looking for. It doesn't do anything, wastes your whole turn... yet, again, cards like this are great in a pool so when you do stuff like, say, Evolve or Forbidden Shaping, the chances that you get a big body without slotting this dude in your deck is higher. No one's ever going to use this, though. (1/5)
• C'Thun: Ah, we reach the titular old gods at last. I've talked enough about the C'Thun decks with his cultists and how they aren't the most efficient decks out there. But with dedicated support, C'Thun can easily go up to around 13-18 quite easily, and in some games I even got C'Thun to the twenties. And twenty damage flying and crushing everything your enemy owns is pretty awesome. C'Thun is a bit countered by Grim Patrons and Doom Hoggers, but that's fine. C'Thun is generally your deck's win condition, and while C'Thun decks aren't as great as as N'Zoth decks, they're still pretty powerful. C'Thun with Brann is just insane, and I managed to lob around 50 damage with a Brann/C'Thun combo, wiping out an entire board of Patrons and the Warrior's entire health pool in one turn. At the worst, C'Thun can manage to board clear even if he didn't outright kill your opponent, and that's still like a 13/13 minion that demands removal if your opponent wants to survive... though your opponent knows that you're playing a C'Thun deck and is probably keeping a removal while in wait for C'Thun. It's omnipresent, but when the dust settles C'Thun decks will get refined and we'll see some really good decks, I think. As Hearthstone's first real build-around-this-named-card, though, it's a great and fun eyeball dude. (5/5)
• N'Zoth, the Corruptor: Man, I think N'Zoth is the most powerful Old God in the set. For ten mana you get a 5/7, which is kind of a bad statline, but he summons every single one of your Deathrattle minions that already died. In other words, your enemy has to deal with them again. This means big value targets like Sylvanas Windrunner, Cairne Bloodhoof and Tirion Fordring rise from the grave to utterly fuck up your opponents, plus solid minions like Savannah Highmane, Xaril, Rhonin, Infested Wolf, Twilight Summoner, Shifting Shades, Anub'arak, Chillmaw, Bloodmage Thalnos, Chillmaw... And imagine if N'Zoth came out with Naxxramas and GvG still in place! All your Piloted Shredders, Haunted Creepers, Sludge Belchers, Sneed's Old Shredders will also return to life. N'Zoth is definitely a build-around deck, and if you really want N'Zoth to shine probably don't put too many weak Deathrattles like Infested Tauren, Zealous Intiate or Tentacle of N'Zoth into your deck which honestly are just bad and will reduce the chance of something good being pulled out. N'Zoth is just utterly insane value, and there is no board clear alive that's going to be able to deal with N'Zoth's army of Deathrattles, so short of direct damage that can kill your face, your opponent's going to have a hell lot of time dealing with this finisher. (5/5)
• Yogg-Saron, Hope's End: Yogg-Saron is a ten-mana 7/5 that casts a random spell for every spell you played this game. Doubled if you have Brann. While initially people dismissed Yogg-Saron as being a batshit crazy card with the ability to pyroblast your own face three times... when you consider the amount of spells in the game that's just straight up beneficial like 'deal damage to enemy minion' (Swipe, Consecration, Flamestrike, Frost Nova, Holy Nova), or 'summon a minion', or 'draw a card', and literally all the secrets, Yogg-Saron ends up being like so much more powerful since a good 2/3rds of his spells will be beneficial. Sure, sometimes he'll buff your opponent's minions with all the Druid and Paladin spells, sometimes he'll launch Fireballs and Frostbolts on your side of the field, and sometimes he'll just cast DOOM because his face is on the card and then mill your deck dry, but Yogg-Saron is insanely powerful in a proper deck with a lot of spells. I've seen a fair amount of Mage decks that play a lot of spells use Yogg-Saron and C'Thun as winning conditions, so if you survive an Old God it's unlikely you'll survive the next. Yogg-Saron also allows you to win matches you probably wouldn't win otherwise, as well as causing you to suffer the most humiliating defeats... but Yogg-Saron is the a chaotic god of death. He doesn't care what you think of him, all he's going to do is sow chaos and madness, and moreso than C'Thun, N'Zoth and Y'Shaarj, I think Yogg-Saron embodies the madness of the Old Gods the best. (5/5) 
• Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound: People were skeptical about the viability of C'Thun and Yogg-Saron, and all the skepticism mostly evaporated when the cards were actually released and turned out to be pretty damn good, or at least fun in Yogg's case. Y'Shaarj... is just... there. I thought he was bad when I first saw him, and I still do. He's got the power powerful raw stats with 10/10 for 10, but C'Thun gets buffed to insane amounts and deals damage when he enters. N'Zoth brings along a lot of buddies who benefit you when they die to compensate for his weak stats. Yogg-Saron is also likely to wipe the board. Y'Shaarj is just a huge body that, at the end of your turn, will draw a minion from your deck. Now at turn 10, you probably drew around half of your deck already, and the chances that you have Y'Shaarj a that point is pretty small. And, yes, he draws a free minion and summons it, but if it's a weak one-drop you're sad. If it's a battlecry minion you're sad. And honestly, anything except for other big deathrattle dudes like Deathwing Dragonlord, Sylvanas or the Ragnaroses, or big taunt dudes like Soggoth or Tirion, just isn't worth the hassle of dropping a 10/10 with such a slow effect. It's definitely getting removed the next turn, so maybe it eats a removal... which is kinda sad for an Old God to do. Varian Wrynn draws three cards and puts all minions on the battlefield, and granted he's a mere 7/7, but with Varian you get the chance to at least put more than one minion.With Y'Shaarj, I haven't seen a deck build that really made him viable other than gimmicky Astral Communion ones... and even then Y'Shaarj is just a stopgap while the winning conditions usually ended up being N'Zoth, Aviana or Deathwing Dragonlord bringing in far more minions than Y'Shaarj ever could. Oh well, I suppose that's why Y'Shaarj ended up being the only one cut up and killed before the events of the Warcraft games. He's way too slow and doesn't do enough to impact the game. (2/5)