Hearthstone: Knights of the Frozen Throne Post-expansion Review

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

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

DRUID:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


NEUTRAL:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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