Best Legendary Minions Of The Year Of The Kraken

Introduction

Legendary minions! Everybody loves them, right? Right? Well, most players do 🙂

Welcome, dear readers, to another more lighthearted article where I’ll be going over what I believe to be the best legendary minions of the first standard season, the Year of the Kraken. Although all legendary minions that are viable in the standard format are viable for this list I promise that I will do my best to focus on the legendary minions from the last three sets while not neglecting the legendary minions from the previous sets. How many minions will be on this list? Let’s make it a top 15 list, shall we? 🙂

The Criteria

Before we dive right into the list we need to set up some ground rules.

The first criteria for a legendary minion to be on this list is to be viable in the standard format. This is after all the list about the best legendary minions of the first season of standard. It doesn’t matter which set the minion originated in as long as that set is a part of the current standard format.

The second criteria is the viability of the minions. There are without a doubt plenty of fun legendary minions out there, but I’m not looking at fun as a factor but at viability instead. A legendary minion can be well designed and have a fun ability but if it didn’t make the cut to appear in competitive decks than it didn’t make the cut on this list as well. Don’t get me wrong! Being well designed is one of the crucial components for this list but the minion must also be very playable as well.

The last criteria is the impact on the ladder and the representation in competitive decks. What does this mean? It means that the minion must have either shaped the competitive metagame, had appeared in various decklists or have been so detrimental to the success of an archetype that that archetype can’t function too well without that one legendary minions.

With all that out of the way, let’s dive right into this list 🙂

Top 15-11

 

C’thun

Kicking off the list is the most marketed old god out of them all, cthun. For all the cthun fans out there who are reading this, this doesn’t mean that cthun was a bad card. It is far from a bad card it is a bit more under performing than the others on this list. When I first saw this card and how it works my mind was blown away and I was sure that cthun druid will be amazing! I’ve even crafted the entire golden deck. However, out of all classes that got cthun support cards only one had actually played a cthun deck and that one was the cthun control warrior which was a top tier deck for about a half of the entire year. Great card, amazingly designed and it is unfortunate that other cthun decks had ended up being so lackluster.

Aya Blackpaw

I’m honestly quite impressed with the progress of aya-blackpaw which turned out to be the second best gang leader from the latest expansion. Although this card has been a part of the format for barely two months it saw consistent play in all Jade Golem decks, one of which is a top tier deck, and has the ability to produce some very powerful minions. To be completely honest with you, this spot could have either gone to aya-blackpaw or nzoth-the-corruptor but, at least when it comes to the standard format,  nzoth-the-corruptor turned out not to be as good as at I thought it would be and had quickly phased out of the format while aya-blackpaw had immediately found a very good spot in the format which she will hold for quite some time.

Archmage Antonidas

archmage-antonidas gets a spot on this list as not only one of the most powerful legendary minions in the game but because it had once again seen a lot of competitive play this year. It appeared in  every freeze mage decklist and even some tempo mages ran it. Nowadays it is being played in Reno mage decks as well so I would need to find a very good excuse for not putting one of the best legendary minions and one that was played in every deck its class had this year on the list. archmage-antonidas is one of those few legendary minions that had consistently performed well and saw competitive play since their introduction to the game and if the developers don’t nerf it nor send it to the wild format you can expect to see the archmage in the top 15 next year as well.

Brann Bronzebeard

brann-bronzebeard, in my mind, is one of the three most powerful legendary minions in the entire game. The explanation for this is that this is a card that will never get weaker as new cards are introduced to the game and will only keep getting stronger with each new battlecry minion from this point until the moment that it is either nerfed or the servers shut down permanently. However, this comes from the perspective of someone who plays wild, and since this is a list of based around the standard format, brann-bronzebeard didn’t make it to the top 3. It saw a LOT of play during this year and it will continue to do so until April when this old explorer will leave the standard format for good to seek new adventures in the jungles of wild.

Emperor Thaurissan

emperor-thaurissan lands on the 11th spot of this list. I love emperor-thaurissan! This card alone had created a lot of crazy combos ever since its introduction, it had made multiple miracle decks function, it had a spot in Malygos Rogue, Freeze Mage and Malygos Druid decks and even some variations of Miracle Rogue ran it. It is a pretty crazy card that many will hate to see gone but I also can’t wait to see what kind of crazy combos will the it enable after a couple of years in the wild format. I know that some players who love to play combo decks are panicking about what will happen once this card is gone and I can say with 100% certainty that freeze mage and miracle rogue will manage without it, just like they’ve managed before it came out.

Top 10-6

Kazakus

Another latest entry to the game, kazakus had proven its worth over the last month and a half. This card is so well designed that I absolutely love it! The idea of creating your own spell is something that we haven’t seen before in Hearthstone and kazakus does that very well by implementing several options that can be picked using the discover mechanic. It made Renolock a even better deck, it made Reno mage a very good deck and at one point it might just make Reno priest a bit better. While I don’t think that this card has a bright future soon its impact on the standard format along with its very unique and very good design can’t be denied and this it had earned a spot on my list.

Ragnaros, the Firelord

Let’s first address the insect in room. The reason why ragnaros-the-firelord and other legendary minions that will come soon are above kazakus is not only because they are really good but also because they have been really good for a much longer period of time. ragnaros-the-firelord has seen play in various decks since the beginning of the standard format. Sure, sometimes the card saw less play and sometimes it saw more play but I’ve certainly seen it more often than I had the last couple of months before the introduction of the standard format. It is an evergreen legendary powerhouse minion which had stood the test of time, saw a LOT of play this season and will most likely do so in the next (and if it doesn’t I’ll still play it in hots)

Barnes

Barnes is without a doubt the best legendary minion that came out of One Night In Karazhan adventure and it saw a lot of play immediately after its introduction. Barnes saw play in midrange shaman deck which was the most powerful deck of the previous year, saw play in multiple decks that had some powerful end of the turn effect minions and once again sees play in some variations of Jade Golem midrange shaman decks. It has a very unique and very powerful effect which can often swing the games in your favor and it will more than most likely continue seeing play in the next year when it gets even more crazy tools to pull out of your deck and make your opponent concede while shedding salty tears 😛

Fandral Staghelm

fandral-staghelm is the be all end all definitive druid staple legendary minion from now until the moment the servers are shut down permanently. This card is insanely powerful and saw play in every druid deck since it was introduced. Druid cards are known for their flexibility and powerful effects which, in return, require of you too choose one: of the two effects. fandral-staghelm doesn’t care about that and breaks all the rules! There have been so many games which were instantly decided the moment fandral-staghelm had hit the board and the player played two choose one: spells because the received value was insane! It is the most powerful legendary minion in the game along brann-bronzebeard because it will just keep on getting stronger with each new set.

Sylvanas Windrunner

No ”Top X legendary minions” list is complete without the banshee queen sylvanas-windrunner. One of the arguably most powerful minions in the game (though not as much as brann and fandral) sylvanas-windrunner has found her place in the standard metagame once again in multiple different decks because it is just one of those legendary minions which if you have then you simply play it. I think that about two years ago or last year before the introduction of the standard format it was awarded the title of the best legendary minion in the game by a reddit poll and while I do agree that it is one of the best minions in the game, the persistence that this card shows (because it won’t go away!) and the amount of play that it constantly sees definitely land it on this list.

Top 5-1

Patches the Pirate

What card beats sylvanas-windrunner for the 5th spot? patches-the-pirate. This card is insane. It is so strong that it is not even funny anymore! When I first saw it I’ve brushed it off as ”just another pirate” minion but was I wrong about this one! patches-the-pirate had shaped the metagame and took over the competitive ladder so fast that I don’t recall a single legendary minion in recent history that managed to do that as fast and as efficient as patches-the-pirate. It is a completely crazy card, it had brought pirates back in a big way, it had introduced three different pirate decks to the competitive ladder and it is probably one of the most hated cards after another card that is on this list (you can probably guess which one it is)

Sir Finley Mrrgglton

Wait, how does sir-finely-mrrgglton beat patches-the-pirate? How does anything beat patches-the-pirate when I’ve just explained how crazy that card is? Simple. Efficiency and playability over a longer period of time. Yes, patches-the-pirate is strong but other cards on this list have been consistent and extremely successful through the entire year. sir-finely-mrrgglton saw play in midrange shaman, aggro shaman, midrange Jade Golem shaman, aggro pirate shaman, dragon warrior and even some variations of tempo warrior as well and those are the only ones that I can remember from the top of my head. In my mind, sir-finely-mrrgglton had, without any doubt, deserved the 4ht spot on this list. I will miss this card once it is gone and I think that a lot of decks will miss it too, though I can’t be sure for a lot of players on the receiving end.

Bloodmage Thalnos

Freeze mage, tempo mage, aggro mage, Reno mage, miracle rogue, Malygos rogue, deathrattle rogue, midrange shaman, aggro shaman, midrange Jade Golem shaman, aggro pirate shaman, Malygos druid, Jade Golem druid, Reno priest and some variations of dragon priest, do I really need to say any more as to why this card is on the 3rd spot?! bloodmage-thalnos had really shined the past year. It was consistently played in more decks than any other legendary minion ever since the standard format was introduced, it saw play in several top tier decks, and it will most likely continue to do so even post rotation. bloodmage-thalnos is a pretty crazy card and I’m glad that it is seeing more love than it had previous to the introduction of the standard format.

Reno Jackson

Who else would be in the top 3 if not reno-jackson? The father of highlander, also known as Reno, decks, the card that had an entire gang of the latest expansion built around the theme that it had introduced, the reason why Renolock has been the top tier deck for so long and the card that made its own deck archetype, it would be a crying shame to not let reno-jackson take the 2nd place on this list. It had spawned 3 different decks built around it, one of them has been the top tier deck for a very long time, and it is one of those cards without which an entire archetype falls apart. reno-jackson had definitely earned a place on this list. If anyone is wondering, it has been confirmed a week ago that reno-jackson will indeed rotate out in April.

Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End

Who else would it be?! One of the key criteria here, as it was mentioned, is the effect of the card on the metagame and no one can deny the effect that yogg-saron-hopes-end had not only on the ladder metagame but on the tournament metagame for almost an entire year. According to many, including some pro players, yogg-saron-hopes-end had ruined the tournament scene because of its crazy RNG effect which effectively made it into a ”panic button” which had very often won players games. It got so bad that the card had to be nerfed before Blizzcon to avoid making the biggest tournament of the year a complete joke. It is without a doubt the most hated card of the previous year and the one with the biggest influence on the game. I’m glad that they have nerfed it! 🙂

Conclusion

So, that is my list of the best legendary minions of the Year of the Kraken. What did you think of it? Do you disagree with some choices? I admit that I’ve had a very hard time placing the cards from 15-6 in a numerical order because all of them are very good and I just hope that I’ve done a good job at numbering them, but don’t take those numbers too seriously, the top 15-11 and 10-6 could have gone in any order.  As always  if you’ve liked this article do consider following me on twitter https://twitter.com/Eternal_HS. There you can ask me all sorts of Hearthstonequestions (unrelated to this article) and I’ll gladly answer them as best as I can.

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