Legendary Tier List – Neutral Cards

Hello everyone! One of the most common question from the Hearthstone community is “which Legendary should I craft?”. While the answer is usually “”, if the player asking already has it or maybe wants a Legendary fitting some specific deck, well, it gets harder. Asking each of those questions individually takes too much time, so […]

Introduction

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Hello everyone! One of the most common question from the Hearthstone community is “which Legendary should I craft?”. While the answer is usually “Dr. Boom“, if the player asking already has it or maybe wants a Legendary fitting some specific deck, well, it gets harder. Asking each of those questions individually takes too much time, so why not just create a tier list that will explain everything?

I know that I’m not the first one with the idea. The thing is, however, that most of the “crafting guides” or “tier lists” I’ve seen didn’t include Adventure Legendaries. While it’s true that you can’t craft them, A LOT of the Adventure Legends are incredibly strong and sometimes it’s better to actually spend some gold to get a wing instead of hoarding 1.600 dust.

Before starting, I want to explain my rankings. First of all, I’ve divided the Legendaries into Neutral and Class ones. The reason is that the Class Legendaries are, obviously, less common, because they can only be played in a certain class, so the number of decks they’re played will be naturally lower. So even if some Class Legendary is “Tier I” in strength, I can’t put it there with Tier I neutral Legends, which will obviously be used more often. Since both of the lists will be very long, I’ll release them in separate articles. Then, I’ve divided Legendaries into 4 tiers:

  • Tier I – The cards that are commonly used in many decks, they’re very strong and will most likely stay strong, they’re the highest priority cards for crafting if you want to play competitive decks.
  • Tier II – While slightly weaker than Tier I, they are still strong and see competitive play, but the number of decks they’re used in is lower, they have more narrow usage or they’re just optional.
  • Tier III – Legendaries that are rarely seen in competitive decks – not terrible, but they’re either completely optional, outshined by the better ones, see play only in low tier decks, or are played in very specific metas to counter certain decks or cards.
  • Tier IV – Weak Legendaries, those that see no competitive play or are played only in gimmicky decks, not worth getting.

The lower the card is in the tier, the weaker it is. It means that cards at the bottom of Tier II will be on the similar level to those on the top of Tier III. The exact cards position is subjective and might be a subject of changes based on the feedback.

Tier I

Dr. Boom

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: I’d say that you can fit him into any deck if you really want to.

Dr. Boom is consistently staying on the top of the crafting list. If you don’t have him – craft him. The card is just a powerhouse, I can’t imagine playing most of the Midrange decks without it. It’s one of the reasons why Big Game Hunter is still very popular tech, because pretty much EVERY deck runs Dr. Boom. The card is just too strong and since Blizzard isn’t likely to nerf it (it was released over year ago and still no changes), it should stay this way until another broken Legend gets released. The reason Dr. Boom is so strong are the Boom Bots. Since the main body is pretty easy to kill, it’s not that important. But even after killing it, enemy still gets (potentially A LOT) of value thanks to the Boom Bots Deathrattle. Dr. Boom rarely gets 1 for 1, it usually takes 2 or 3 cards to completely clear it.

Loatheb

How to acquire: Naxxramas Wing 2

Example decks: Midrange Druid, Patron Warrior, Zoo Warlock

While some people call Loatheb a tech card, it’s so commonly used and got into so many deck lists that’s it’s not even used as a “tech” to counter something right now – it’s just a very solid Legendary. First thing is that it can, just like Dr. Boom, fit a lot of different decks. No matter if you play Midrange or Control, Loatheb will be good. Even in some Aggro decks Loatheb is a good choice. Spells will always be important part of the game, and blocking them for one turn cripples a lot of the decks. 5/5 body is also good enough for the mana cost, as it doesn’t die to the most popular 4-drop (Piloted Shredder) and takes out some of the popular 5-drops without dying (Sludge Belcher, Azure Drake).

Emperor Thaurissan

How to acquire: Blackrock Mountain Wing 1

Example decks: RenoLock, Freeze Mage, Malygos Rogue

Another card that gets the value the moment it’s slammed on the board. While 5/5 body for 6 mana isn’t impressive, the guaranteed cost reduction on each of your cards is very strong. It makes a lot of Combo decks work (mana cost reductions allow to play let’s say 14 mana combo with 10 mana) but is a solid card even in non-combo ones. If you play the deck that consistently holds a lot of cards in the hand, for example some slower Warlock list, the card will also fit. If you’re holding 8 cards in your hand, for 6 mana you get a 5/5 body and up to 8 mana of tempo in future turns. Not to mention that it’s one of those cards that have to be removed right away or else the game might be just over – getting more discounts often means too much tempo for enemy to keep up with.

Sylvanas Windrunner

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Handlock, Control Warrior, Control Priest

One of the vanilla Legendaries that aged really well. Even though it was nerfed back in the day (it used to cost only 5 mana), it’s still very strong card. The card’s effect is incredibly good and, maybe what’s even more important, incredibly annoying for enemy. If they have no Silence to get rid of it, the card is going to steal something. While sometimes it’s just a 1/1 token, Sylvanas stealing a Shredder, a Belcher or something bigger means a lot of value for the user. Not to mention that killing your own Sylvanas is a solid move in a lot of situations – she combos really well with cards like Shadowflame or Brawl (in case she survives until next turn).

Reno Jackson

How to acquire: League of Explorers Wing 1

Example decks: RenoLock, Reno Warrior, Reno Priest

Reno Jackson has created a completely new archetype around it – Highlander-styled decks. The downside is being forced to play some situational, maybe suboptimal cards and being less consistent because of that – after all you can’t put in two copies of the strongest cards. The upside is having a completely broken card that heals you to full for 6 mana AND leaves a 4/6 body on the board. Reno Jackson is incredibly strong and actually pretty flexible too. While RenoLock is the strongest Reno deck, a lot of players have taken it to high Legend ranks, Reno Warrior and Reno Priest are also solid choices. On top of that, Lifecoach was playing Reno Paladin and Savjz was playing Reno Mage, so the card can fit almost any class. The only downside for relatively new players is that Reno decks usually feature a lot of Legendaries (since you can only play one copy of them anyway), thus making them very expensive. My personal opinion is that Reno Jackson is the strongest card in the game right now and the “downside” of building a deck with no duplicates should be less and less punishing over the time, as the new cards are released and more options are given.

 

Tier II

Justicar Trueheart

How to acquire: TGT Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Control Warrior, Control Priest, Midrange Paladin

Justicar Trueheart turned out to be the only real gem among the TGT Legendaries. As it turns out, the card that affects the rest of the game even after it’s removed is pretty good. While the body is pretty disposable and will often die to small removal or a leftover 2-drop, don’t worry, it’s still worth it. Having an upgraded Hero Power for the rest of the game is amazing. It doesn’t work well in every class, because honestly some of the upgraded Hero Powers are pretty weak (*cough* Rogue *cough*), but it works particularly well in Warrior (turns him into a tank), Priest (amazing value while healing minions + synergy with Auchenai Soulpriest) and Paladin (two 1/1’s per turn are real threat over the long time + synergy with Quartermaster). I suspect it might see some play in other classes in the future, as it’s been already tested in some slower Druid and Mage lists.

Alexstrasza

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Freeze Mage, Control Warrior, Combo Priest

This Legendary is used for a specific purpose. You usually play Alexstrasza in the decks that play some sort of combo, but rarely hit enemy’s face before that. She is used to “soften up” enemy’s health, because the decks can usually burst enemy down from ~20 health, but not 15. If you play a deck that doesn’t hit opponent’s face, Alexstrasza is simply 9 mana 8/8 that instantly deals up to 15 damage. Then enemy can be finished off with different combos – for example 2x Fireball + Frostbolt from Mage or Prophet Velen + 2x Mind Blast from Priest. Alternative use is healing yourself up if situation requires it – if you’re at 5 health, Alexstrasza heals for 10, which is often necessary to survive in fast matchups.

Harrison Jones

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Tech card

I didn’t list any example decks, because the card is rarely in the standard lists. It’s a tech card that gets in and out depending on the meta. The more weapon classes there are, the better Harrison Jones is. And since weapons are strong and will likely stay strong, if Harrison is a solid crafting choice. Right now it’s in a pretty good spot with Secret Paladin and Aggro Shaman both being popular + Patron Warrior and Anyfin Paladin also being rather common decks. It’s pretty simple – if you face a lot of weapon decks, crafting Harrison and adding him into your Midrange/Control list should be a good idea.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton

How to acquire: League of Explorers Wing 3

Example decks: Aggro Shaman, Aggro Druid, Aggro Warrior

The first 1 mana Legendary in the game turned out to be a blast. Hero Powers were one of the biggest restrictions of deck building. Best example is Warrior – Armor Up doesn’t fit aggressive play style at all. It doesn’t affect opponent’s health or the board, it affects only your own health. Which is useless. So if you wanted to build an Aggro Warrior – you’ve pretty much played without the Hero Power. Sir Finley allows you to change the bad Hero Powers into better ones. Either fitting the matchup or the play style much more. It allows every Aggro deck to use “best” Hero Powers like Steady Shot or Life Tap. Obviously, since you get offered 3 random ones, you don’t always get them, but if you play a class with incredibly weak Aggro Hero Power (like Shaman or Warrior), you’re guaranteed to get something better. If you’re a fan of Aggro decks, you should definitely get this Legendary. But even some non-Aggro decks, like Patron Warrior, use the card just to choose the best Hero Power depending on the class they play against.

Brann Bronzebeard

How to acquire: League of Explorers Wing 2

Example decks: RenoLock, Zoo Warlock, Dragon Priest

Brann Bronzebeard is slightly niche, but good at what it does. It doesn’t fit a lot of decks, because most of them don’t run enough Battlecries, but he is insane in the ones that do. Let’s take Zoo Warlock as an example. Abusive Sergeant gives 4 attack instead of 1, allowing a 1/1 to trade into 5/5. Defender of Argus gives +4/+4 stats in total. Dark Peddler discovers 2 cards instead of 1. That’s already enough to put him into the deck. Brann also works fits into Dragon decks, as they are using a lot of Battlecries. It works particularly well with Azure Drake (two card draws) and Blackwing Corruptor (a Fireball built into a 5/4 body for 5 mana). Brann + Antique Healbot is also a great combo used in some slower decks, healing you for 16 instead of the standard 8. If you play a Battlecry-heavy deck, Brann will most certainly be a good addition.

Nefarian

How to acquire: Blackrock Mountain Wing 5

Example decks: Dragon decks, Control Warrior

It’s the card that often fights with Ysera for the “late game threat” in Dragon decks. Nefarian is a really solid card, because it gets instant value the moment he hits the board. 8/8 body is way more aggressive and better at pushing for damage, but is easier to remove compared to Ysera (4 less health, dies to Big Game Hunter). The value is also questionable. If Ysera survives just one turn and gets one Dream card, Nefarian is most likely stronger. While yes, there are some bad class spells, getting two of them will on average be better than one Dream card, not to mention that some class spells are crazy good. Ysera, on the other hand, has potential to draw you more than 1 Dream card if she sticks to the board. Overall, I think Nefarian is still a solid choice for Dragon decks, or a good choice for any budget Control deck if they can’t afford Ysera.

Ragnaros the Firelord

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Secret Paladin, Handlock, Midrange Hunter

Ragnaros the Firelord used to be a top tier Legendary back in the day. And he still sees some play now and then, but it’s definitely not dominating. The card is okay, because it gets instant value. One 8 mana fireball is guaranteed no matter what. If it sticks to the board for longer, it can get insane value. But there are a few problems with the card. First – it dies to Big Game Hunter. Second – the shots are random. Shooting opponent’s face for 8 when he’s at 30 usually doesn’t matter. You also sometimes hit the targets you don’t want to kill – like Nerubian Egg for example. And the last, probably biggest problem, is that the current meta just makes it bad unless you’re extremely lucky. Board flooding is very common. Let’s take Paladin as an example – enemy plays Muster for Battle, Hero Powers and ignores your Ragnaros. Now you suddenly have 4 (possibly 5 if you count the opponent’s Hero) bad targets for Ragnaros. Hitting a 1/1 for 8 damage doesn’t really matter. Not to mention the Divine Shields are also bad targets and hitting a Haunted Creeper just increases the amount of damage (and targets) on the board. So right now Ragnaros is more often seen as a finisher move in Midrange decks like Secret Paladin or Midrange Hunter than the Control deck late game threat/removal.

Bloodmage Thalnos

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Oil Rogue, Freeze Mage, Combo Priest

Probably one of the most unimpressive Legendaries for the new players. I mean, it’s a 1/1 minion with no crazy effect. The reason it’s good is the Spell Damage AND the fact that you can cycle it. It’s a mix between Kobold Geomancer and Loot Hoarder. If you want to cycle your minion, you just play it. For 2 mana you get another card in the same spot and it might even deal 1 damage to some minion or force a ping. And if you need the Spell Damage, you play it, combo with spells AND after everything’s done it still cycles. The card is very strong in spell-heavy decks. Oil Rogue is probably the best example of deck that can utilize Thalnos. If you ever need 3 damage Backstab, 2 damage Fan of Knives, 5 damage Eviscerate etc. – you can play Thalnos and throw your spells. It’s also used in spell-based combo decks like Freeze Mage, where it can be used as the surprise burst. People usually play around 15 damage combo, but Thalnos + Fireball + Frostbolt + 2x Ice Lance, while pretty rare, is 21 damage. It can also be combo’ed with AoE spells for a bigger removal, like 5 damage Flamestrike or 3 damage Blizzard.

Ysera

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Dragon Priest, Reno Warrior

Ysera used to be higher on the crafting list, but the meta just doesn’t work in her favor. The card is really huge – hard to remove, with instant value and even more value over the time. It’s incredibly strong and can be theoretically played in any slower list. The only problem is that she is too slow in the current meta. Against Aggro decks the game is usually over before you can even play her. Against a lot of Midrange decks you want your 9 mana Legendary to have some instant value – decks like Secret Paladin or Midrange Druid are usually putting too much pressure and you need to play for the tempo, not for the value. But Control matchups is where Ysera excels – once you drop her you force enemy to have an answer or else you’re going to get too much value out of the body and Dream cards and most likely just win the game.

Malygos

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Malygos Warlock, Malygos Rogue, Freeze Mage

Malygos is used as a finisher card in spell-based combo decks. The +5 Spell Damage makes even 1 damage spells very threatening. Usually the idea is to get enemy low enough, then play Malygos followed by 2 or 3 spells to kill him. The tricky part is that Malygos costs 9 mana, making it hard to combo with something, so the Emperor Thaurissan is usually used in this kind of decks. Shamans can also use Ancestor’s Call to get it out for 4 mana and then have 6 mana to work with. The most popular Malygos deck is probably Malygos Warlock, which is a Midrange Dragon deck with the potential 20+ damage burst finisher (Malygos + 2x Darkbomb + Soulfire). Malygos is also sometimes played in Freeze Mage. It’s a solid win condition in slower matchups, because with just one tick of Emperor on the right cards it is possible to play Malygos + 2x Frostbolt + 2x Ice Lance, which is an OTK combo (34 damage).

Elise Starseeker

How to acquire: League of Explorers Wing 4

Example decks: Control Priest, Control Warrior, Reno decks

Probably one of the most interesting Legendary cards. While not doing anything by itself (it’s just a 4 mana 3/5), it’s a huge win condition in slower matchup. The card allows Control decks to play lower curve in order to win more games against Aggro and Midrange, while still having a way to win in the slow matchups. Once nearly out of cards, playing Golden Monkey turns all the situational and weak cards in your hand (which you had no reason to play in the late game) into Legendaries. Legendaries are random, but on average they’re much, much better than cards like Zombie Chow, Circle of Healing or Acolyte of Pain (when you don’t want to draw into the fatigue).

Leeroy Jenkins

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Combo Warlock, Face Hunter, Aggro Paladin

Back in the day one of the main reasons why Miracle Rogue was so strong. Leeroy Jenkins got nerfed a long time ago, but it’s still a fine Legendary. First kind of decks you want to play it in are Aggro decks. There, Leeroy serves as a finisher. In Face Hunter, Leeroy + Hero Power or Leeroy + Unleash the Hounds are semi-common finishers. In Aggro Paladin, Leeroy is usually combo’ed with buffs like Blessing of Might or Blessing of Kings. And then, Leeroy is still played (interchangeably with Arcane Golem) in Combo Warlock decks. With Emperor Thaurissan, it’s possible to combo Leeroy with Power Overwhelming and/or Abusive Sergeant and Faceless Manipulator for a huge burst move. 20 points of damage is very to achieve, but it’s very possible to have 30+ damage finisher with the right cards.

Kel’Thuzad

How to acquire: Naxxramas Wing 5

Example decks: Ramp Druid, Dreadsteed Warlock, some Reno decks

Kel’Thuzad is in a pretty weird spot. The card itself is very strong, but you need the board lead to utilize the effect. However, if you already have the strong board lead – a lot of times you don’t even need Kel’Thuzad to win. On the other hand, if you’re behind, it’s not likely that enemy will just ignore the few minions you have and go all-in into the face. Thus it’s very hard to get any Kel’thuzad value when playing from behind. So all in all, while the card is strong, it’s very hard to use properly. It has seen some play again in Reno decks and it certainly might find its way into some decks in the future. It’s also a great option for any budget Control deck if you have Naxx, but you can’t afford to craft better Legendaries.

Tier III

Nexus-Champion Saraad

How to acquire: TGT Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Control Warrior, Tempo Mage

Slightly outside of Tier II for being just too slow. It costs 5 mana, but you really need to play it on turn 7 along with Hero Power to get the instant value. And at this point, it’s usually just better to drop Dr. Boom. Getting a random spell is also a big unknown – you might get something crazy that will win you the game, but you’re very likely to get something as bad as a Paladin’s Secret or I don’t know, Circle of Healing. The dream is staying on the board and getting a random spell every turn, but that’s not very realistic. It sees some play in Control Warrior (or Reno Warrior) here and there + Hotform used it in his version of Tempo Mage (but I think that Ethereal Conjurer might be just better right now).

Baron Geddon

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Control Warrior, Fatigue Warrior, Reno Warrior

The thing about Baron Geddon is that he could be a Warrior class Legendary and probably no one would see any difference. The card is in Tier III not because it’s bad, but because it’s played in only one class. The reason for that is that Warrior has no real AoE spells like Consecration, Holy Nova, Hellfire etc. Whirlwind is only 1 damage and Revenge‘s 3 damage is conditional. And you don’t really want to use Brawl when enemy has let’s say 3/2, 2/2 and 1/1 on the board. That’s when Geddon comes handy – you can drop him on the board and clear it, while developing a relatively big body. Great thing about Geddon is that he’s often a check-mate against Aggro decks, because if they can’t deal with it from their hand, their board just gets cleared every turn. Geddon isn’t really played outside of the Warrior, because other classes either have access to their own AoEs, they don’t play the Control style or Geddon doesn’t work well with their own minions (e.g. Paladin can’t use Hero Power or drop anything small like Knife Juggler with Geddon on the board).

Old Murk-Eye

How to acquire: Reward for obtaining all the Murlocs from Classic set

Example decks: Anyfin Paladin, Murloc decks

The card got a nice promotion after Anyfin Can Happen got released. Before that yes, it was good in Murloc decks, but the Murloc decks weren’t really good. They were very hit or miss, missing too often to be played competitively. Old Murk-Eye is seeing some play again with the OTK Paladin deck that revolves around stalling the game, playing some Charging/attack buffing Murlocs and then resummoning them with Anyfin. First Anyfin is “only” 18 damage, but the second one is most likely 30+ damage one. Old Murk-Eye is a big part of this combo, being the main source of Charge damage. With board full or Murlocs, many of which are Murloc Warleaders, he can get to insane attack amounts, like 15+ attack on him is pretty common. The card is great in both Anyfin deck and any other Murloc decks, but the first is the only one that currently works well.

Toshley

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Tempo Mage

Toshley is a good choice if you play the deck that can utilize Spare Parts. It’s not really worth to play him if you have no Spare Parts synergy, because the Parts themselves are pretty weak and other than getting two of them it’s just a 5/7 body for 6 mana with no effect (pretty comparable to basic Boulderfist Ogre). The only deck that can really utilize Spare Parts right now and is slow enough to play Toshley is Tempo Mage. Two spare parts mean +2 damage for Mana Wyrm, 4 random pings with Flamewaker or even 2 Fireballs from Archmage Antonidas. He’s not an auto-include, but definitely a card to consider. It might possibly be played in other decks in the future too.

Deathwing

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Control Warrior, Dragon Warrior

Insane effect with insane penalty. Destroying the whole board and dropping a 12/12 minion at the same time is very strong play. The problem is that you need to rely on the topdecks right after that. Deathwing is a cool card in some decks – those slow, reactive, Control decks. Namely, Control Warrior and such. Yes, you discard your whole hand. Yes, it dies to Big Game Hunter. There are some situations where enemy has complete board control and you just can’t win otherwise – maybe he doesn’t have an answer for your 12/12, maybe your next topdecks are going to be great and you’re still going to come back. Deathwing serves as the “emergency button” that you press when all else has failed. He’s also very good in fatigue scenarios, where he’ll be the last minion played. You play all the cards that do something again, and then you discard the rest (which you don’t care about). If you’re lucky and enemy has no more removal, you win the game.

Chillmaw

How to acquire: TGT Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Dragon Priest, other Dragon decks?

Bigger version of Abomination. An interesting card that has seen quite a lot of play after it was released, but it’s not seen as much any longer. The card is simply an AoE removal packed into a minion body. It’s pretty strong on the paper, especially to counter decks like Patron Warrior or Zoo Warlock. It has couple of flaws, though. First and probably the biggest one is that if you’re by any chance not holding a Dragon, that’s a 6/6 Taunt for 7 mana. It’s incredibly weak. Second thing is that it’s only good when you’re behind and Dragon decks don’t want to be behind. Dragon decks are tempo decks which value board control very highly. There is a huge chance that when playing Dragon deck you’ll have board control in the mid/late game. At that point dropping it will usually do more harm than good. So it’s really a double-edged sword, it might work really well in certain scenarios, but might be dead card in different ones.

The Black Knight

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Tech card

Once one of the most popular Legendaries and tech card seen in tons of decks. Right now not really used any more. This is because the card is just way too weak if it doesn’t find the target. Even though there are quite a lot of Taunts in the matchup, it’s hard to fit a card that is just straight useless in some of the matchups. It’s in a similar spot to Kezan Mystic – it’s great when it works, but it might actually lose you more games by being useless in some matchups and clogging your hand. You can’t really play it as a vanilla 4/5 for 6, so that’s that. But I’d actually consider playing it in Druid heavy meta, as pretty much every Druid deck runs some Taunts. I can also see it being played in some Reno decks, because they have much more “free” slots for tech cards.

Sneed’s Old Shredder

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Control decks

Sneed’s is actually a minion that fits any slower deck. You can play him in any Control deck and probably some Midrange decks too. He doesn’t see much play, but pops out here and there from time to time. The card is pretty good, but shares the same flaw that many big Legendaries do – it’s too slow. It has no instant impact on the board. And not only that – the initial body is also pretty weak. You pay 8 mana to get a 5/7 minion, and 5/7 minion is worth about… 5.5 mana. Next thing is that if it’s Silenced, that’s everything you’re getting. No random Legendary. In certain scenarios it’s really good – I’m not even talking about the dream Sneed’s into Kel’thuzad (which resurrects the Sneed’s), but getting any big Legendary usually means 2 for 1. But being very slow, pretty much just a 5/7 in Aggro matchups, very vulnerable to Silence and having a chance to backfire (by dropping something like Lorewalker Cho or Majordomo Executus), there are just better options for late game threat.

Feugen & Stalagg

How to acquire: Naxxramas Wing 4

Example decks: RenoLock, Deathrattle decks

Feugen & Stalagg combo is very unique, because we have two individual cards that require other one to die in order to get the Deathrattle value. And what a value – summoning a 11/11 minion is pretty huge thing. On the paper, the combo is pretty strong. But in reality, there are a lot of holes in the grand plan. First one is that you actually need to draw both, play both and both need to die in order to get the value. It doesn’t happen that often unless you play a cycle-heavy deck. Second thing is that individually they don’t do anything – they have no effect, just a pile of stats. Third thing is that while Feugen’s statline (4/7 for 5) is actually really good, the Stalagg’s one (7/4 for 5) is terrible. 4 health makes it vulnerable to Piloted Shredder and easy to remove in general. Not to mention that simply Silencing the second minion means no Deathrattle value and that the 11/11 very often just dies to Big Game Hunter or some other removal. All in all, the only deck that really runs the combo is RenoLock, but that’s because there are a lot of “flex spots” in the archetype + deck cycles a lot, making it easier to play both minions on the same game + after already playing Feugen, Warlock can play Stalagg and instantly Shadowflame it for 7 damage AoE + guaranteed Thaddius. Other than that, the combo was seen in some gimmicky Deathrattle decks – like Deathrattle Shaman, but those decks aren’t really competitively viable.

Chromaggus

How to acquire: Blackrock Mountain Wing 4

Example decks: Dragon decks

Another cool card that’s held back by no instant value. And by being a strictly value card, which isn’t really great in the era of tempo. 6/8 statline is quite decent, because it’s not in the range of Big Game Hunter. The effect is insane if it procs – not only you get twice as many cards per turn, but you also don’t draw further into fatigue. So you have more threats, but you’re still good in fatigue war. If it sticks to the board, it can get insane value. But, there are – once again – few problems. No instant value unless you draw the same turn as you play him. So you either need to have something like Loot Hoarder on the board already (unlikely) or you need to play him along the card draw. Which is hard considering the mana cost really limits what you can do on the same turn. The only “easy” combo is Chromaggus + Power Word: Shield in Priest, which instantly draws you a card and instantly gets value. But, the thing is – against fast decks you don’t need more value (they will actually be happy that you’ve spent your turn on nothing that affects the board) and unless you get duplicate healing or something, the card is really bad. And in faster matchups you can’t expect it to survive more than one turn, it just dies and you often don’t even get any value. So yeah, the card has huge potential, but it’s hard to get it. It’s similar to the Kel’thuzad, but it’s so much lower, because if Kel’Thuzad sticks to the board even for 2 or 3 turns, it’s auto-win. And if Chromaggus sticks for 2-3 turns, enemy might still have quite a huge chance depending on the cards it duplicated.

Arch-Thief Rafaam

How to acquire: League of Explorers Wing 4

Example decks: Reno decks, budget Control decks?

Let me get this straight – the card is not terrible, but I really don’t see a reason to play it over Ysera or even Nefarian. Ysera is probably the biggest competitor here. It’s harder to remove, it has potential to gain more value over couple of turns, it’s better body against fast decks (you don’t care about extra attack and 12 health is huge). And what’s probably most important – Dream cards are high tempo cards. Even the minions are good for their cost – 3 mana 3/5 or 4 mana 7/6 are good tempo drops. Dream and Nightmare both cost 0, so can be squeezed into any turn. And Awakens is 2 mana board clear. On the other hand, Rafaam cards cost 10 mana. Yeah, 10 mana. You basically have to spend a whole turn to play one. Which in fast matchups is pretty much impossible and in slower ones, well, also hard to do + relatively easy to counter. The 10 damage for 10 mana is underwhelming, there is almost no point to pick it unless enemy has empty board and is at low health. Filling your board with 3/3’s is strong, but most of the slower decks should have a quite easy way to deal with it. And the +10/+10 is good only if it pushes for lethal (which isn’t too likely, because enemy will play around it) or gets an instant great trade – otherwise you just give enemy a great removal target. Rafaam is a cool card, because it gets instant value, but the “powerful artifacts” costing 10 mana make it really, really slow. If they were at 6 mana or something, the card would be so much better and still not broken.

Eydis Darkbane & Fjola Lightbane

How to acquire: TGT Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Djinni Druid, Aggro Paladin

I put those two together, because they fit the same kind of decks and are really similar to each other. It’s another case of Legendary that probably didn’t find the right deck yet. On paper, the Valkyrie Sisters are really strong. Vanilla 3/4 body with strong effects should see play in some Aggro or Tempo decks. They don’t, however, because the decks they would fit into don’t play enough buffs and they don’t fit into the decks that play enough buffs. Let’s say Control Priest prefers to play Deathlord over them for obvious reasons. They have seen some play in Aggro Paladin, which runs some buffs like Blessing of Might and Blessing of Kings, but the problem is that you can’t really put too many buffs into a deck like that (because you want to curve out with minions and getting hand full of buffs just sucks) and those Legendaries require you to have a lot of those in your deck. They also have a pretty cool synergy with Spare Parts, especially the +1 Health/+1 Attack ones. Maybe some day they will be featured in a top tier deck, right now they aren’t really worth crafting.

Gormok the Impaler

How to acquire: TGT Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Zoo/Flood Warlock, Flood Paladin

Another card that is great if it works, but sucks if it doesn’t. Here, the requirement to work is having 4 other minions on the board already. Which is actually pretty hard to achieve playing most of the usual decks. Gormok fits the “flood” decks, the ones that plan to flood the board with small minions. Probably the most popular one is Warlock. Zoo Warlock itself can be considered a flood deck, just to give you a clue. Minions that spawn more minions like Haunted Creeper/Echoing Ooze or just straight up token-spawning spells like Muster for Battle/Imp-losion have great synergy with Gormok. If the Battlecry procs – 4 mana 4/4 that deals 4 damage is amazing. On the other hand, vanilla 4/4 for 4 is super weak and wouldn’t be played in any deck. So yeah, Gormok fits the flood decks, but is too inconsistent to put it higher on the list.

Cairne Bloodhoof

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Raptor Rogue, Deathrattle decks?

One of the strongest Legendaries in vanilla. When it comes to pure value, it’s still strong. Having two 4/5’s for 6 mana is great. But it’s very slow card tempo-wise and 6-drop slot is pretty crowded already. Most of the slow decks want to play Sylvanas Windrunner, Emperor Thaurissan or Justicar Trueheart, not to mention the class 6-drops. Yes, other 6-drops are also pretty slow. They have no immediate impact. But the thing is – Sylvanas and Emperor can’t be just ignored (while Cairne can, because it doesn’t do that much) and Justicar gets value through the rest of the game. The 4 attack is also a big problem. If it was 2x 5/5, the card would probably be commonly seen. But with Sludge Belcher being very popular and a lot of the mid game minions being 5/5, the 4/5 stats are pretty weak on turn 6. Oh, and to top all of that, he’s also very weak to the Silence. The only decks he’s still used in are the Deathrattle-based ones, like he has seen some play recently in the Raptor Rogue (because 4/5 Deathrattle is pretty good to copy with a 3-drop).

King Mukla

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Aggro Paladin

King Mukla is a high-tempo, very aggressive minion. 3-drop with 5/5 stats is insane. The downside is that you’re giving enemies two 1 mana buffs. So if he had let’s say a 3/2 minion on the board, he can just use them to buff it and kill the Mukla. Obviously, Mukla is best when dropped on turn 3 on the empty board. Since it rarely happens, the card is very rarely seen. Only the board-centric Aggro decks can afford to play it, because the card is just pretty bad when the enemy is holding the board control. The only deck that really runs it is Aggro Paladin. The deck is heavy board-centric and Mukla gets extra synergy with Divine Favor – giving enemy 2 bananas and then casting Divine Favor means 2 extra cards. Oh, and remember to remove Mukla from your decks if you face a lot of Tempo Mages. Flamewaker will definitely be happy with two extra cheap spells.

Baron Rivendare

How to acquire: Naxxramas Wing 3

Example decks: Dreadsteed Warlock, Deathrattle decks

A minion with huge potential that probably just requires the right deck to work with. Baron Rivendare‘s effect is very strong – Deathrattles procing twice might range from getting another two 1/1’s from Haunted Creeper, through Sylvanas Windrunner stealing another minion to even getting a second random Legendary from Sneed’s Old Shredder. As you can see, it has potential. But it’s not a tempo minion, it’s a value one. The 1/7 stats are very weak for a 4 mana minion, it can’t really trade into anything meaningful and dies for free. So you can’t play it in pretty much any Aggro or Midrange deck, which value tempo very highly. Then again, Control decks don’t run as many Deathrattle minions and honestly – they probably don’t even need more value outside of the Control mirrors. It works in some decks like Deathrattle Shaman or Deathrattle Hunter, but they’re not viable. The only semi-viable deck that you can play Rivendare in is Dreadsteed Warlock – he is used to duplicate the Dreadsteeds.

Troggzor the Earthinator

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

Troggzor was supposed to be the ultimate 7-drop. At least that’s what pro players have predicted before GvG. It turned out to be much worse than expected and it’s pretty hard to exactly tell why. One of the reasons is that Dr. Boom became so dominating and let’s face it, most of the decks don’t need more than one 7-drop. Troggzor is also too slow, with no immediate impact on the board. Yes, if it gets killed by a spell you get a 3/5 back, which is really cool. But he sucks against minion trading. 6/6 stats for a 7-drop means that if enemy has pretty much anything on the board he should be able to kill it. The card isn’t really bad. It’s great if you drop it on the empty board and even better in the situation where you have the board control already. It doesn’t die to Big Game Hunter too, which is big. It would probably be ran in some slower decks if not for the fact that Dr. Boom just outclasses it. Poor, poor Troggzor.

Blingtron 3000

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ??? (Mech decks?)

Another cool Legendary that has some niche usage, but it’s really commonly seen. Two reasons – first one is that the effect is mirrored, so it’s really up to RNG who gets the better weapon. And second one is the body. 3/4 body for 5 mana AND the mirrored effect makes it pretty weak unless you can combo it with something. So, you have two ways to make the card good – either instantly destroy the enemy weapon or freeze the enemy. Harrison Jones is best for the first purpose. It’s a 10 mana combo, where you get a 5/4 and 3/4 minions, random weapon and draw 2-3 cards on average (but the draw can really range from 1 to 8). Another, cheaper way is to combo it with Acidic Swamp Ooze on turn 7. Or you can just play it alongside Snowchugger/Water Elemental and freeze the enemy so he won’t be able to attack. It’s still not enough to offset the incredibly weak body for that mana cost, that’s why Blingtron doesn’t really see play. It’s more of a fun Legendary in the current meta.

Onyxia

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Dragon Warrior

Onyxia isn’t bad, but this kind of effect doesn’t really work on 9 mana minion. If you play faster decks, you can’t really afford to put 9 mana minion there, it’s just too slow. On the other hand, if you play Control decks, you won’t get that much value out of flooding your whole board with 1/1’s. That late into the game, the 1/1’s aren’t really a big threat unless you’re holding some card that can buff them. That’s why Onyxia could be crazy in Druid or Shaman – Savage Roar and Bloodlust. Could be, but not for 9 mana. The only deck I’ve really seen Onyxia in was the Midrange Dragon Warrior, but she was really optional there.

Captain Greenskin

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Pirate decks

Greenskin’s effect is pretty strong in weapon-based classes. +1/+1 to the weapon means either a lot more face damage or another trade on the board. The 5/4 body for 5 mana sucks, though. That’s the main problem with the card. For this reason I’ve only seen this guy in Pirate decks, which are pretty Aggro-oriented and heavily weapon-based. In this kind of decks, Greenskin’s effect is usually “deal X damage to the opponent”. Which actually works quite well. Let’s say you play Truesilver Champion on turn 4 and instantly swing with it. Next turn you follow it up with Greenskin. Now your 4/1 weapon turns into 5/2 – that’s 6 more damage in total. In this kind of scenario, playing a 5/4 for 5 that “Deals 6 damage to opponent” is really strong in fast decks. The problem is that he’s pretty much unplayable if you have no weapon equipped.

Hogger

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

Hogger is, potentially, a really strong Legendary. And it’s almost viable too. It’s one of the cards that can gain a lot of value over time. Too bad that the moment it hits the board, it doesn’t even pay for itself. 4/4 + 2/2 for 6 mana is definitely not enough, even if the 2/2 has the Taunt. The card is insane when played into opponent’s empty board, because after it starts creating 2/2’s, it gets harder and harder to kill the main body without some sort of AoE. The problem is that the card needs to spawn two 2/2’s to break even (4/4 + 2x 2/2 with Taunt for 6 mana would be playable) and only then it really starts getting value. If the card needs to stay 3 turns on the board to really start getting value, it’s way too slow. Realistically it will spawn 1 or 2 minions, which is not enough to play it.

Maexxna

How to acquire: Naxxramas Wing 1

Example decks: ???

Too slow. Even with such a strong effect, 2/8 stats for 6 mana aren’t great. In case of getting Silenced, she becomes a slightly better Oasis Snapjaw (which is a 4-drop that doesn’t even see any play). In case of playing against Aggro, who has only small minions, the effect doesn’t really matter. The 2 attack also makes it unplayable against Priest – Cabal Shadow Priest can ruin your day. The effect is priced at around 4 points of attack and honestly, most of the targets that you’re going to hit are 6 health or lower anyway. So when trading it’s pretty much a Boulderfist Ogre and when pushing for face damage… it can be often ignored, because 2 damage per turn isn’t that much.

Rend Blackhand

How to acquire: Blackrock Mountain Wing 3

Example decks: Dragon decks

I have seen this guy as a removal in some Dragon decks, I’ve even used him in my own Dragon Priest. And when he works, he works really well. Not only you get an instant removal, but you also develop an 8/4 minion. Yes, it dies pretty easily, but it still did the job – destroyed a Legendary. The only real problem is that not every deck runs Legendaries and a lot of them run only one (most likely Dr. Boom, which they can play before you draw Rend or even not draw at all). If enemy has no Legends, it’s a dead card. You don’t really want to play an 8 mana 8/4 minion without any effect. Rend is, however, AWESOME in Control matchups, so I can see him being used as a tech card in Dragon decks.

Foe Reaper 4000

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Ramp Druid

A very interesting concept in theory, way too slow in reality. So, first things first. The same effect on let’s say a 3/5 for 4 would be insane. That’s because such an effect is great against Aggro decks or generally in matchups that flood the board. Those decks usually want to close the game very fast. A lot of the games don’t even last until turn 8, not to mention that by playing this guy you’re pretty much passing your turn, so it might actually backfire. On the other hand, in Control matchups it won’t work, because they can afford to play just one minion per turn and they will very likely have some kind of answer. The only matchups I can see it working in are the Midrange decks, like it would be really good against Midrange Druid (they often have 2-3 minions on the board, it can kill the Shade of Naxxramas in Stealth), but once again – too slow, passing a turn 8 against Midrange Druid without removing anything often means that you’re dead to combo on turn 9. So the card is strong, but too slow. If you would have a way to get it out in the mid game, it would be really good, that’s why the only deck I’ve ever seen it running (outside of the Discovering it from Gorillabot A-3) was Ramp Druid.

Skycap’n Kragg

How to acquire: TGT Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Pirate decks

The thing about Skycap’n Kragg is that the card isn’t even bad. It’s the Pirate decks that are bad. Right now we don’t have enough Pirate synergies, the synergies aren’t strong and the Pirate cards aren’t individually good enough. They are getting better and better every expansion, with new Pirate cards being released, but it’s still not enough. I’ve seen Skycap’n being used in both Pirate Rogue and Pirate Paladin, but neither of those decks is a high tier one. On average, you should have around two Pirates on the board when you play it, so it’s a 5 mana 4/6 with Charge. -1/-1 Doomguard, but without the discard effect. It has the potential to be even higher tempo card (like getting him out for 3 or 4 mana), but is pretty bad when you have no Pirates on the board at all (but at this point you are probably screwed anyway, because Pirate decks are tempo ones and no board means pretty low tempo). The only reason to craft this guy is when you really, really want to play Pirate decks.

Icehowl

How to acquire: TGT Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Ramp Druid, Control decks

I find the concept of Icehowl really cool. HUGE body with Charge that can’t hit opponent’s face. I mean, it can if you Silence it, but then it loses Charge, so there is no surprise burst here. So it’s a minion that is meant to be used as a removal. I’ve tested it in Ramp Druid and it worked quite well – that’s a slow deck that suffers from lack of ways to remove big minions outside of the obvious Big Game Hunter. It needs to do trades on the board, which often aren’t worth it – you sometimes might need to run two of your minions into one 8/8 or something. That’s where Icehowl comes handy. You just play Icehowl, get 1 for 1 and then you don’t care what happens to it. Enemy Big Game Hunters your 10/2? That’s fine, now he doesn’t have it for another target. Enemy uses a removal to finish it off? Great, you got 2 for 1. Enemy plays another minion and you kill it? Another 2 for 1. And in case it sticks to the board, you might always Silence it and hit face for 10. Icehowl is a really cool Legendary, it just didn’t find the right deck yet. It’s not that good in fast matchups, because honestly, you don’t need 10 damage to kill that 3/2. Most common slow decks prefer to use other removals over it and that’s why it’s so low on the list. It’s just not played in any good deck right now, but it doesn’t mean that the card sucks – it has some potential.

Illidan Stormrage

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

Illidan Stormrage is my last card in Tier III, just outside of the last Tier. Why? Because it still has some potential. The effect on the card is very, very strong for a 6-drop. If enemy has no way to kill Illidan, it can win you the game alone by getting tons of value. It’s like a way better Violet Teacher, because it works both on minions and spells and the summoned tokens are 2/1 instead of 1/1. It’s incredibly strong in theory. But in practice, there are two things that kill it. First is 7 attack – being in Big Game Hunter range means that you can’t just drop it on turn 6 – you need to play some other cards alongside it to get the instant value if you don’t want to get outtempo’d hard. And the other is 5 health. As we all know, 5 health minions for 6 mana are usually pretty easy to kill. Just look how often Emperor Thaurissan dies the turn he’s played on (and if you add BGH to the removal pool, it becomes even easier to kill it). But unlike Emperor, if Illidan is just dropped on turn 6 and gets killed, it gains no value at all. Just a small thing like switching the stats from 7/5 to 5/7 would most likely make it viable and playable Legendary. In the current state, it’s good only in very rare scenarios.

Tier IV

Elite Tauren Chieftain

How to acquire: Blizzcon 2013 ticket (Golden version), Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

Minions with mirrored effects aren’t usually great, unless you have some way to get a better use of the effect than your enemy (on average). With ETC it doesn’t really work. You play a 5/5 for 5, both of you get random cards, some of the cards also have the random effects. You might get a good one just as likely as the enemy. But honestly, the cards from ETC aren’t even strong. They are slow and weak. You won’t likely have an opportunity to play them until you run out of your own cards. The only decent one is Rogues Do It…, because it deals 4 damage for 4 and cycles. The card has no place in any real deck and I’d honestly prefer to play Pit Fighter over it for the +1 health.

Mekgineer Thermaplugg

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

It feels like some sort of a troll card. On the one hand, you’d want to play a minion with such an effect in fast decks. I mean, what’s the point of getting a free Leper Gnome or two in slow decks? But the effect is on a 9 mana card, so it’s impossible to play it in fast decks. And it sucks in slow decks, because not only you have to also kill some of the enemy minions to get the instant effect, the effect isn’t even that good. I mean, you’d be much better off playing Ysera. Not only the Ysera cards are much stronger, they don’t require you to kill something right away, but the Ysera is also much harder to kill than the Thermpalugg. Or I don’t know, play any other big Legendary, because this one is really, really bad. I mean, okay, getting 5 Leper Gnomes basically means a free Pyroblast, but it’s impossible to get so many without perfect board control, and with perfect board control you win the game anyway.

Majordomo Executus

How to acquire: Blackrock Mountain Wing 2

Example decks: Majordomo Mage

There are a lot of reasons why the card is bad and pretty much only one why it’s good. In the era of burst, where dealing 8 damage from your hand is so easy with almost any popular deck, the card more often kills you than wins you the game. The first body is relatively easy to remove, especially since it’s right in the Big Game Hunter range. And once it gets removed, you’re left with only 8 health. Which most likely means you’re dead next turn. Not to mention that the 8 random damage Hero Power isn’t as good as it might look in a lot of scenarios. A lot of the time you’d much rather have a guaranteed 1 damage ping or 2 damage to the face, especially against classes that can flood the board quite easily. If you think about playing it in Warrior, getting 50 Armor and then changing yourself into Rag, don’t think about it – Armor disappears. The only good thing I’ve mentioned at the beginning is that Secrets stay through the transformation. Another reason to play it in Mage is Coldarra Drake, which allows you to set-up for a lot of Rag shots per turn. So if you have Ice Block up, you will most likely survive the change. Then you can play Alexstrasza and set yourself at a more reasonable 15 health. And then you can finally enjoy being Ragnaros, but still keep your finger on the pulse, because any combo deck can still easily kill you from 15. So the only decks that Majordomo might work in is Majordomo Mage, which is more of a fun deck than anything strong. But it works sometimes, so I can’t completely discredit it.

Hemet Nesingwary

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

Hemet is often called the worst Legendary in the game, which I disagree with. Yes, he’s terrible, but not the worst thing ever. The thing is – it’s a really specific Tech card. It doesn’t mean that Hemet is bad – it just means that it’s very, very situational. If it hits a Beast, even something like a 3/2 or 2/3, it’s okay. If it hits a bigger beast, like 4+ drop it’s awesome. But if it doesn’t hit anything, it really sucks. 6/3 for 5 are bad stats. Not the worst stats ever, like Justicar Trueheart and more recently Ethereal Conjurer have proven, because if enemy is holding no small removal it still might get a good trade. But you would never play it as a vanilla minion. The problem is that if you want to play it right now, most of the time you’d be forced to. The only two classes that really run beasts are Druid and Hunter. Druid – yes, it’s popular, but Hunter isn’t even commonly seen. Outside of those two classes the only Beasts that are commonly seen are Ironbeak Owl, Dire Wolf Alpha and Haunted Creeper. Yeah, I mean, hitting one of those is better than nothing, but it means that the only matchup Hemet might work in right now is Midrange Druid with Druid of the Claw. Do you want to tech in against only one matchup? Not really. But Hemet isn’t a bad card per se, whether it’s good or bad is dictated by the rest of the meta. If an overpowered, Dr. Boom level neutral Beast gets released or let’s say Beast Druid & Beast Hunter become Tier 1 decks, I can see Hemet being ran as a tech card. Just like Kezan Mystic is ran sometimes when there are many Mages and Hunters in the meta. So right now – don’t craft it. In future – maybe, we’ll see.

Gazlowe

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: Decks with a lot of Spare Parts, Priest?

Very high value, VERY low tempo card. What can possibly go wrong? Everything. The game is heavily tempo-based right now. Gazlowe is a huge tempo loss. First you need to play a 6 mana 3/6. Then you need to play a bunch of 1 mana spells, which most likely aren’t affecting the board too. And then you get a bunch of random Mechs in your hand. Yeah, that’s value – but what’s the point of value when you lose the game before you can play the Mechs? Control decks are getting rid of any slow cards they can, because the most popular decks are tempo ones and you can’t afford to play so slow against them. And that’s one of the most slow cards in the game. Wild Pyromancer will most likely have a bigger impact on the game if you have a bunch of 1 mana spells – and that’s a 2-drop compared to the 6 mana cost of Gazlowe (because you can’t even call it a 6-drop).

Gruul

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

A pile of stats. Nothing besides that. That’s why the card sucks so much – you don’t want to play it in faster deck, because it’s too slow and you don’t want to play it in slower deck, because it does nothing besides of being big. One removal completely clears it and leaves nothing behind, no impact on the board whatsoever. On the turn you can attack with it, it has the same total stats as Dr. Boom, but only in one body (vs 3 bodies) and no Deathrattle effects. Only two turns after it’s played it starts getting bigger, but I wouldn’t trade the Boom Bots’ Deathrattles for the +2/+2. Yes, in rare scenario where enemy has no way to kill it and it sticks to the board for a few turns, you might win the game if you hit face 3 times. But let’s be honest, that’s the case for any big Legendary. Leaving Dr. Boom up for a few turns also means enemy loses, leaving Ragnaros, Kel’Thuzad, Ysera etc. also most likely means losing the game. I’ve only ever played it when I first started the game and didn’t have much cards. But at this point I would probably run North Sea Kraken over it and it’s Common.

Mimiron’s Head

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

It’s a cool thing, but I have seen it working only once (outside of YouTube compilations). And I’ve played thousands of games since GvG came out. And the funny thing is that it wasn’t even necessary, because I was dying next turn anyway, playing against Mech Mage who got it from Gorillabot A-3. Card is slow, rarely works and even when it works, it usually doesn’t even change a thing (because if you have a board full of Mechs, you’re most likely in a good spot anyway). Not to mention it might also backfire! If you can’t kill the enemy right away, sometimes turning 4 minions into one is a negative, not positive thing. Now enemy only needs a single removal instead of AoE or a few single target ones. 5 mana 4/5 is not enough to be played in Mech decks, which are heavily tempo-based. Play it only if you want to get a cool highlight, I just fail to see another reason.

Bolf Ramshield

How to acquire: TGT Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

I can see the reason to play this card. But it’s just too weak. It’s good against spell-burn decks like Freeze Mage and Malygos Rogue. And that’s it. Other than that, you’re much better off playing some kind of Taunt. Why? Because if enemy wants to kill the Taunt with minion damage, he needs to run the minions into it. It means that Taunt minion hits back, damaging or killing those minions. And Bolf? Bolf doesn’t do that. Enemy just runs the minions into your face and kills the Bolf. You gained 9 points of healing (sometimes slightly more in case of overkill) for 6 mana. So why not just play the Healbot and have a 3/3 body on top of 8 healing for 1 less mana? Yeah, that’s the reason Bolf sucks. The only thing that Taunts can’t block is spell burn. So like I’ve said in the beginning, Bolf can stop some spell burn that Taunt can’t stop. But then, how is it better than healing? Enemy Freeze Mage plays Alex on you, you can play Bolf, but you can also just Healbot. It’s strictly better than healing against SPELL OTK! Like let’s say Malygos Freeze Mage, which might play (discounted by Emperor Thaurissan) Malygos + 2x Frostbolt + 2x Ice Lance for the OTK. So assuming that you’re at 30 health and the combo deals 34 damage, Bolf might save you (and save you in a pretty good way, since Mage has no clear way to deal 9 damage first to kill the Bolf, so Bolf ends up tanking 16 damage). Yeah. That’s it. Bolf is good against Spell OTK decks. So if they ever get really popular, Bolf is there to counter them. Before that, I don’t see him working in any deck – and trust me, I’ve tried it.

Millhouse Manastorm

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

It would be a good card if there would ever be a no-spell meta. Which won’t likely happen. The card is terrible right now, because for just a slight tempo boost you have a chance for a huge tempo loss or even to straight up lose the game. If enemy has a removal for your Millhouse, he negated your tempo gain completely and most likely played a 2-drop or 3-drop of his. This is most likely scenario. And then, if enemy has some other spells he can use, well, that’s even better for him. I don’t know, they can play free card draw like Arcane Intellect, Sprint or Lay on Hands, they can play other cards like Unstable Portal or play a minion and buff it up with Velen’s Chosen / Blessing of Kings. In worst case scenario they can just kill you. It’s very rare, but Druid might start with 2x Force of Nature and 2x Savage Roar to just instantly win the game. The card has so big backfire potential for just a slight tempo lead. I mean, it’s just a 4/4, it still trades 1 for 1 with Shielded Minibot, it’s not a 6/6 that can threaten a very fast lethal or something. Do not play it.

Nozdormu

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

The only point of playing this card is to surprise your enemy who has gone to the kitchen to take a snack or I don’t know, to the toilet. Otherwise it is just a vanilla 8/8 for 9 mana. I mean, I can see some merit playing it on a strong board, where enemy has to figure out the best way to remove it. Then he can’t do that and has to make suboptimal choices. But then again, if he has a way to remove Nozdormu, he just does that and has a full turn timer again. The only play the card has seen recently was in the deck that abused an animation bug. It turned out that animations played just before your turn timer has ended took time from the opponent’s turn. So with the right timing, playing Nozdormu + 2 cards with Joust (because it has very long animation) pretty much left enemy with no time to react and skipped his turn completely. Which obviously means you win the game, because if enemy can’t move and you just win the game in next 2 or 3 turns. The bug was theoretically fixed, I’m not sure whether it’s true or not, but in my opinion playing this kind of deck and abusing a bug was pretty low anyway.

Mogor the Ogre

How to acquire: GvG Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

I don’t really see a point of playing it over Boulderfist Ogre. The same amount of stats (just reversed, so even better) for the same mana cost and Mogor has an effect that affects, well, the whole board. It’s mirrored. So it might screw your opponent just as likely as it might screw you. If you feel like testing your luck you might play it, because if your hits always go through and your enemy always misses it’s probably going to be good. But remember that it’s 50/50, so it is just as likely to ruin your day. And I don’t even want to talk about Big Game Hunter once again (another reason why it’s better to just run Boulderfist Ogre).

Tinkmaster Overspark

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

Tinkmaster Overspark used to be a card played in every deck. Back then he was a 2/2 for 3, but his effect was targetable. Being able to target the effect obviously made it much, much better. First use one, in the faster decks, was buffing your own minions. If you played it on a 1/1 then yeah, you had a 50% chance to get really, really rewarded. For 3 mana you got a 2/2 body and a free Blessing of Kings. And if it failed, playing a vanilla 2/2 for 3 wasn’t that terrible back then, because the game was less tempo-based than it is now. In fast decks it also was used as a way to pass through the Taunts – if you had lethal you could use it as a “Silence”. And the last use was to pacify the big drops. If you played it on Sylvanas Windrunner, it was either a Silence (because it turned into a 5/5) or pretty much a complete removal. Same goes for the other big drops – Ragnaros the Firelord, Ysera – when played on those cards, Overspark was never bad, even when turning them into 5/5’s it was still a gain for you. Right now it does the same, but randomly. So let’s say enemy plays an Ysera into your 4 minions. Now when you play Overspark, you have a 20% chance to hit Ysera. Is it worth? No. The only real scenario where the effect can be utilized is when you play in a slow matchup and enemy drops one big threat on the board. Then you can play Tinkmaster and you’re guaranteed to hit it. But you don’t want to play the card that is good only in certain, very specific situation and it can also screw you if played in other ones.

The Beast

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

A wet dream of any deck that runs Big Game Hunter. Most of the time Big Game Hunter kills enemy minion for free, which is already crazy. With The Beast it not only kills the enemy minion, but also gives another 3/3 body. So when killed with Big Game Hunter, for 3 mana enemy clears a big minion and gets 4/2 + 3/3 minion. That’s usually enough tempo loss to just lose the game. Yeah, in case it doesn’t get BGH’d it slightly better, but only slightly. It’s just a pile of stats so any other removal can also get rid of it quite easily and not only it gets no effect whatsoever, it also gives 3/3 to your enemy. Playing this card in Constructed usually means that you lose the game. Against Aggro you don’t really care, because if you play a fast deck yourself the game is usually going to end before you can even swing with it. And against slower decks, they are very likely to have a way to kill it. So yeah, no matter how you look at it, it’s bad.

The Skeleton Knight

How to acquire: TGT Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

So, you play a 6 mana Salty Dog. And let’s remind you that Salty Dog is already a terrible card. But okay, you play it. It has no other effect. It’s just a pile of stats. The only thing it does is that when it dies, it has a CHANCE (yes, a CHANCE) to get back to your hand. But I don’t even want it back in my hand, because I can’t afford to lose even more tempo by playing another 6 mana Salty Dog! It’s decent only in those slow, value-heavy matchups, but then again, those decks also run a lot of high cost minions, so the chance that your Skeleton Knight wins the joust are below 50%. The only time I have seen it being played is when it’s picked from Museum Curator when other options are terrible. But even then I have never seen it working. Unplayable in any faster matchup, mediocre in slow matchups (it’s good only below 50% of time).

Gelbin Mekkatorque

How to acquire: Spending money during Hearthstone Beta (Golden version), Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

The card would actually be good if the “AWESOME inventions” were any good. Or not even good, if they didn’t have a huge chance to backfire. So, we have a 6/6 stats for 6 – that’s decent. And four inventions in total, 3 of which have a chance to target ANYTHING. Emboldener 3000 can buff your own stuff, even itself (then it’s pretty strong), but it can also buff the enemy minions. Poultryizer means that you can’t drop it on empty board, because if you roll it, it has basically a 50% chance to instantly turn your Gelbin into a 1/1 Chicken. I mean, come on… And Repair Bot can heal you/your minions, but it can also heal the enemy back. Conveniently just for as much as Gelbin hits for, so with just a bit of luck from the opponent’s side, it might negate all the damage Gelbin deals. The only good invention is Homing Chicken. Let’s be honest – it won’t likely proc, because it’s so easy to kill a 0/1 minion in the late game. But it at least has good effect or no effect at all and requires some attention from the enemy – even forcing him to ping instead of I don’t know, playing Dr. Boom might be good enough. And if it somehow procs – that’s even better, you get 3 cards for free. If all inventions were similar to the Homing Chicken (good effect or no effect), the card could actually be playable. But in the current state, with 3 out of 4 inventions having a chance to backfire, you should just play a Boulderfist Ogre instead of Gelbin even if you don’t have any other Legendaries.

Nat Pagle

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

Another Legendary that was once seen in every deck. But that was before it was nerfed + the meta was much slower back then + we had much less good cards to put into the decks. Now every slot is much more competitive and it’s impossible to put a card that can, well, do nothing. Nat Pagle is a card that might do nothing. First of all, it’s a 0/4 for 2 mana. It means that it dies for free to pretty much anything, without even damaging it back. 4 health was hard to kill in the early game back in the day, but it’s not as hard to kill right now, with most of the decks running 1-drops and when missing a 2-drop often means losing the game. So even if played on turn 2, it might actually just die right away and it will most likely die after getting one 50/50 chance to proc. Yeah, 50/50. So even if it survives one turn, it has 50% chance to not do anything. If you want to play card draw or cycle through your deck, play something more reliable. The only times I see Pagle is when it drops out of Piloted Shredder, and even then it rarely does anything. It usually dies right away without getting any value. And putting it into your deck? That would be pretty bold move.

Lorewalker Cho

How to acquire: Classic Packs, Arcane Dust

Example decks: ???

And here it is, final position on my list. Why is Lorewalker Cho at the bottom? For a few reasons, actually. First of all – it’s also a 0/4 for 2. And it’s even worse than Pagle, because Pagle can gain you some value if enemy gets no way to kill it. Cho, however, doesn’t gain you any value until enemy plays a spell, which he can choose to not do. Spells are rarely played on turn 2/3, enemy most likely wants to drop a minion on the curve. With 0/4 stats it has no way to contest anything. Not to mention that you block your own spells too – you can’t play them, because enemy will get them. Yes, you might play it in a deck with no spells, but I think that even in such a deck it might be just too bad. Not to mention that deliberately playing no spells in your deck is usually a handicap already, so why make things even worse? Just like Pagle, I haven’t seen Cho outside of the Piloted Shredder… in years probably. The only reason to play it is to BM or troll your opponent. And I don’t think this reason is good enough. Oh, and the only REAL reason to use Cho is to test some niche interactions or setup insane combos in friendly play (but since it has nothing to do with real play, I won’t raise his score for that).

Closing

That’s it folks. I’ve tried to be pretty objective and look at every neutral Legendary in the game, it’s potential in the current meta, the decks it’s played in etc. I might be wrong with some positions in each tier, because it’s really hard to exactly rank the Legends. Meta shifts quite often and it might even be slightly different on each server. It gets even harder when ranking low tier Legends, because they don’t see a lot of play (or no play at all), so the ranking is based mostly on how I feel about them, not on the real data.

I will start writing the Tier List for Class Legendaries too, it will most likely be ready next week.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask them in the section below! I’d really like to hear your opinion about the position of cards, if you think that something deserves to be higher or should be lower – say it and I will consider changing it!


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