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

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

- 5: Bearshark (up from 4)
- 4: Stitched Tracker (up from 3), Deathstalker Rexxar (up from 2)
- 3: N/A
- 2: Corpse Widow (down from 5)
- 1: Call Pet, Toxic Arrow, Venomstrike Trap, Exploding Bloatbat (down from 2), Abominable Bowman (down from 2), Professor Putricide (down from 3)
So I got most of the shit-cards right, with Call Pet, Venomstrike Trap and Toxic Arrow. I more-or-less got Bearshark's potential right as well, and it's an auto-include in most hunter decks now. What I didn't expect, however, was just how great Stitched Tracker and Deathstalker Rexxar are. Sure, they aren't auto-includes and more of tech choices, but they're still legitimately playable. Stitched Tracker is slightly on the wane now because it's so much more useful to play the beast synergy game, and Deathstalker Rexxar is more of a meta choice... But I was so surprised how much of the hunter's set didn't work. Corpse Widow being absolutely near-unplayable is a shock to me, and Professor Putricide is straight-up a legendary that never, ever really manages to set off despite being pretty good on paper. So yeah. Hunter didn't quite get a lot of good stuff this time around.
MAGE:

- 5: N/A
- 4: Ghastly Conjurer, Frost Lich Jaina (up from 3), Simulacrum (up from 1)
- 3: Sindragosa
- 2: Coldwraith, Breath of Sindragosa (up from 1)
- 1: Doomed Apprentice, Glacial Mysteries, Ice Walker (down from 3), Frozen Clone (down from 2)
My guesswork for Mages is perhaps the most accurate. I don't think Frost Lich Jaina is a rank-5 card the way that Malfurion or Anduin's death knight cards are, but it's still a lot more powerful than I gave it credit for. The only one that I get horrendously wrong is just how powerful Simulacrum is in Quest Mage decks. Quest mage isn't the most consistent of decks (which is why Ghastly Conjurer and Simulacrum are rated 4 instead of 5) but they definitely work well in the lean mean machine that is KOTFT's Quest Mage listing. I'm not really sure why I rated Ice Walker so high back then -- I guess I just thought the Elemental theme is what Frost Lich Jaina decks will be doing? Sindragosa is still a 3-star in my books. She tends to be cut out from decks, but is still a pretty decent tech choice for some control lists.
PALADIN:

- 5: Righteous Protector
- 4: N/A
- 3: Chillblade Champion (down from 4), Uther of the Ebon Blade (down from 4)
- 2: Bolvar Fireblood
- 1: Light's Sorrow, Desperate Stand, Blackguard (down from 4), Howling Commander (down from 3), Dark Conviction (down from 3), Arrogant Crusader (down from 2)
Every single card in this list other than Righteous Protector and Bolvar, Fireblood ends up being cards I over-estimated. Chillblade Champion and Uther of the Ebon Blade are legitimately good cards still, but even they get cut out of the Handbuff and Control Paladin lists respectively every now and then. I overestimated lots of cards as well, with Blackguard perhaps being a card that I thought was way too good than it is. Blackguard's one of my biggest surprises, to be honest, because I really thought that a 9-health card that has the potential to deal damage everywhere would work, but it just didn't quite fit in any other deck archetypes that Paladin has. Definitely doesn't fit in handbuff or murloc lists, and Blackguard also can't work well in Control lists for the simple fact that the Paladin tends to be at full health for a good chunk of the time when you do have Blackguard ready to go. So yeah. Perhaps the class I got the most wrong answers about.
PRIEST:

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

Rogue is one of the biggest surprises for me this expansion, mostly because I didn't expect them to be any good. And to be fair, they weren't really that great until the post-nerf, but Tempo Rogue is pretty much a tier 1 deck right now, and I'm still surprised at how stable the Tempo Rogue list is despite not honestly doing anything particularly special. Miracle Rogue decks are also around, as well as the absolutely disgusting Keleseth-Double-Shadowstep-overvalue deck. So yeah. Rogue didn't show its face a lot in the early parts of the expansion, but has proven to be possibly the third-most-powerful class after druid and priest. The thing is, though, like Paladin, a lot of Rogue's power came from the neutral cards, with the new class cards mostly acting as tech choices.
- 5: N/A
- 4: Valeera the Hollow (up from 3)
- 3: Shadowblade (down from 4), Plague Scientist (up from 2)
- 2: Lilian Voss (down from 3)
- 1: Spectral Pillager, Leeching Poison, Doomerang (down from 2), Roll the Bones (down from 2), Bone Baron (down from 3), Runeforge Haunter (down from 3)
Oh man, I over-esetimated Lilian Voss and the deathrattle archetype so much. Plague Scientist is a card I kind of overlooked, although to be fair it's not in every tempo list either. Perhaps my biggest surprise is just how many 1-star cards are in the list. Doomerang and Roll the Bones are far more unplayable than I thought they would, and I genuinely thought Bone Baron would be a good card... alas, it isn't. Again, though, a lot of Rogue's strength right now comes from older cards (Leeroy, Cold Blood, Vilespine Slayer, Edwin) or neutral cards (Keleseth, Bonemare) that I'm honestly not sure about even putting Valeera the Hollow as a 4-star card, because she's being teched in and out of decks even now. Note that out of all this, Runeforge Haunter and Lilian Voss are examples of good-on-paper cards that just can't compete in the meta.
SHAMAN:

- 5: Thrall Deathseer
- 4: N/A
- 3: N/A
- 2: Voodoo Hexxer (down from 3), Drakkari Defender (up from 1)
- 1: Ice Breaker, Avalanche, Brrrloc (down from 2), Snowfury Giant (down from 3), Ice Fishing (down from 3), Moorabi (down from 2), Cryostasis (down from 2)
So, yeah. Thrall Deathseer is a great card, but I've literally never seen any of the other new Shaman cards outside of Arena. Be it Overload, Freeze or Murlocs, none of the synergies touted around in the expansion ended up working well, and if they do... you're better off playing any one of the eight other classes in this expansion. Evolve Shaman, like Rogue decks in this expansion, also works off neutral cards like Saronite Chain Gang or older cards like Primalfin Totem more than newer ones, so it's another class who ends up having a place in the ladder but nearly no good new cards. Voodoo Hexxer may be a good card in any other meta, and definitely a great arena card, but everything else just simply doesn't work.

Warlock is perhaps the biggest surprise for me, due to how great it is in this meta. Zoo Warlock (with Keleseth's help) is a pretty scary deck near the time of the nerfs, and is a consistent tier 2 decks. There's a lot of flavours with Zoolock too (one where you put in the pirate package, or go all-in with the demon package with Crystalweaver and Bloodfury Potion), with Bloodreaver Gul'dan offering a stable controlling tool at the end. Control Warlocks also do relatively well in the meta, again, due to no small part thanks to Bloodreaver Gul'dan. Discard Warlock is... still shit, but at least it's fun to try and make work. There's enough good stuff in the Warlock card pool that honestly we're maybe 2 or 3 more good cards to make the archetype work. Right now, though? Zoo and Controlare king among the Warlocks.
- 5: Despicable Dreadlord, Bloodreaver Gul'dan (up from 3)
- 4: Defile (up from 3), Drain Soul (up from 2)
- 3: N/A
- 2: Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Gnomeferatu
- 1: Treachery, Howlfiend, Sanguine Reveler (down from 2), Unwilling Sacrifice (down from 2)
I was tempted to move Lana'thel to 1, but Discard Warlock's a somewhat-okay deck that can sometimes get victories... and Lana'thel tends to be one of the more powerful cards in that deck if you can get her to work. Howlfiend is still crap, though. I guessed that Dreadlord would be powerful, but I severely underestimated how great Bloodreaver Gul'dan, Defile and Drain Soul are. Drain Soul's use in Control Warlock is just great, basically filling in the void of Darkbomb back in the day while still giving the Warlock some recovery. Defile's an amazingly powerful card to play around with to clear boards, and Bloodreaver Gul'dan is just easily one of the most powerful Death Knights ever, vying against Anduin and Malfurion for that best-DK spot.

Warrior's... struggling. Whereas Hunter and Shaman at least have one good deck, Warrior's kind of all over the place. It used to be relatively safe to play Pirate Warrior in the pre-nerf decks, and many, many variations of Control Warrior are experimented upon... but they're all shot to hell by a combination of the large amount of Golakka Crawlers and Bloodsail Corsairs in the meta, as well as the fact that Fiery War Axe was one of the cards that were nerfed during the mid-expansion nerf. Right now I'm truly struggling to get my Warrior decks to do anything consistent at all. There's a fun little Dead Man's Hand control deck which I admit can actually work really well, but it's so slow and grindy and far less fun, in my opinion, compared to playing controlling Warlock or Druid decks.
- 5: N/A
- 4: Dead Man's Hand (up from 1)
- 3: Scourgelord Garrosh (down from 4), Blood Razor (down from 5), Bring it On (up from 1)
- 2: Rotface, Mountainfire Armor (down from 3)
- 1: Animated Berserker (down from 3), Val'kyr Soulclaimer (down from 2), Death Revenant (down from 2), Forge of Souls (down from 5)
NEUTRAL:
- 5: The Lich King, Saronite Chain Gang, Bonemare (up from 4), Cobalt Scalebane (up from 4), Prince Keleseth (up from 1), Corpsetaker (up from 3)
- 4: Acherus Veteran (up from 3), Tainted Zealot (up from 3), Skulking Geist (up from 1)
- 3: Bone Drake, Happy Ghoul (up from 2), Snowflipper Penguin (up from 1)
- 2: Fallen Sun Cleric, Skelemancer, Mindbreaker, Nerubian Unraveler, Phantom Freebooter (down from 4), Rattling Rascal (down from 4), Deathspeaker (down from 3), Shallow Gravedigger (down from 3), Prince Valanar (up from 1)
- 1: Deadscale Knight, Wretched Tiller, Prince Taldaram, Deathaxe Punisher, Grave Shambler, Keening Banshee, Meat Wagon, Night Howler, Ticking Abomination, Wicked Skeleton, Venomancer, Spellweaver, Arfus (down from 3), Grim Necromancer (down from 3), Bloodworm (down from 3), Corpse Raiser (down from 3), Vryghoul (down from 2), Tuskarr Fisherman (down from 2), Drakkari Enchanter (down from 2), Hyldnir Frostrider (down from 2), Sunborne Val'kyr (down from 2), Tomb Lurker (down from 2), Furnacefire Colossus (down from 2), Necrotic Geist (down from 2)

A bunch of notably powerful cards are those I ranked as 3-star cards. Corpsetaker is a powerful card in many Rogue and Paladin decks, Acherus Veteran is a powerful mainstay in zoo Warlock decks, and Tainted Zealot is pretty damn powerful in Control Warlock decks. Bone Drake remains at 3, I think, while Happy Ghoul is a far more interesting tech card in Control Warlock and Highlander Priest lists, although he's since been declining in popularity. Skulking Geist is a control card I didn't expect to work at all, and to see him have so much popularity early on in the expansion (he's since been cut out of many decks, but still a bane to Jade Druids) is amazing. Snowflipper Penguin, cute little bugger that he is, surprisingly is a better card than 1-star, because he's used (perhaps partly to meme) in several lists, notably Razakus Priest and Aggro Druid. He is a 0-mana 1/1 beast, which makes it insanely practical for aggro druid lists.
A notable flop from my part is Phantom Freebooter, who ends up being not good at all, surprisingly, being cut out even from Warrior decks. Skelemancer was popular for a bit in Paladin before being cut, and Nerubian Unraveler was likewise popular to counter Quest Mages and Jade Druids for a while before being cut. Prince Valanar saw far more play in Rogue decks than I thought he would, although he doesn't deserve more than 1 stars. Taldaram is still shit. Rattling Rascal was a card I thought was going to be great, but even in Evolve Shaman decks he ends up being cut out due to Doppelgangsters and Saronite Chain Gangs being far more stable evolve targets. Deathspeaker, Arfus, Grim Necromancer and Bloodworm are all cards I over-estimated as well, seeing absolutely no play. Otherwise, though, it's just a matter of moving cards from the 1-star and 2-star categories in and out.

The entire Doppelgangster/Evolve archetype also went from being a fun meme deck into a serious Tier 2/Tier 3 deck thanks to the existence of Thrall, Deathseer. Auctionmaster Beardo also saw some neat play thanks to the existence of Uther of the Ebon Blade, although that's a rare deck to really come up against it's still better than never seeing him at all back when Gadgetzan was the newest expansion. I guess Prophet Velen, Novice Engineer and Gnomish Inventor, too, considering they were never really seen after Classic, and now they're often teched in to Highlander Priest decks? And, of course, the best card that probably deserves this award is Raza the Chained, a card near and dear to my heart due to being one of the first Gadgetzan legendaries I cracked open and I tried to hard to make a Raza Reno deck work with Shadowform and Inspire minions. The fact that Raza's an actual lynchpin in one of the most powerful decks ever makes me all happy inside.
So yeah. That's about it for the Knights of the Frozen Throne, with the brand-new Kobolds and Catacombs expansion slated to be released in mid-December. It's a neat little look back through what I expected would happen, and just how cards end up proving powerful. I still enjoy KOTFT very much, due to its theme and due to the Death Knights -- Highlander Priest, Big Priest, Evolve Shaman and Deathstalker Rexxar are all amazingly fun to play, and I had a blast piloting and crushing people with Zoolock, Murloc Paladin and Jade Druid. It's the expansion that I probably put the most hours into, with me earning a fair amount of golden heroes during the process. So despite the huge negative press that 'Druidstone' gets, I honestly didn't think it was that terrible, especially post-nerf. It's perhaps not as good as the Old Gods meta, but very few can be as good as that particular expansion.
No comments:
Post a Comment