Hail, champions! Last week we covered the most underrated new cards from the Call of the Mountain expansion; today, we're taking a look at the most overrated. Again, we're using Impetuous Panda's pre-release prediction survey as well as our own internal ratings for our community metrics and comparing it with what we're actually seeing at tournaments and on the ladder.
1.) Giddy Sparkleologist
The winner of the "Most Overrated Card" award goes to Giddy Sparkleologist. When she was first revealed along with the rest of the Invoke and Celestial cards, most people drew favorable comparisons to Brightsteel Protector. "Celestials good; free SpellShield good; why not play this card?" It turns out that while SpellShield can be quite powerful on certain units, it doesn't have the same generic value as say Barrier. Giddy Sparkleologist too often ends up being either a weak tempo play or too-little-too-late card.
2.) Whimsy!
This one surprised us too. Turning any enemy follower into a 1/1 mid-combat sounds like fairly promising removal. In practice, though, faster decks like Lulu prefer the more versatile Riposte (or skipping removal entirely and focusing solely on unit-based pressure) and slower decks like Lee Sin prefer spells like Concussive Palm or Will of Ionia that can target champions. Whimsy! ends up being a little too in-between to earn a slot in either archetype.
3.) Augur of the Old Ones
Timmys everywhere will fiercely protest this one. Certainly being able to give any unit permanent Overwhelm AND Regeneration has incredible potential. In the end though Augur of the Old Ones suffers from the same problems as Giddy Sparkleologist: a conditional buff that is only as valuable as the target you're able to apply it to. Most of the desired targets will be higher mana cost so you don't really want to play on-curve, and 6 mana for a 5/5 body is pretty bad tempo. While this card will certainly continue to inspire many homebrews, his overall playrate has plummetted to obscurity.
4.) Taric
The first champion of either of our lists! Before the expansion, players thought Taric was one of the strongest champions of the expansion and rated him slightly higher than Trundle and Aurelion Sol. In practice, the latter are showing up all over ladder and tournaments while the former keeps getting cut. Ironically, Taric almost had a resurgence this week due to Lee Sin's rework until players discovered the decks actually work even better as solo-Lee. Steve Rubin has already hinted that Patch 1.11 will contain "significant buffs to some of Taric's followers and spells", so perhaps his fortune is about to change.
5.) Encroaching Shadows
If Encroaching Shadows had come out a month earlier, it probably would have made itself into a top tier deck. As things currently stand, however, it's just incredibly weak. The issue is that you really need to build the entire deck around this card to justify playing it, and the archetype itself is just such a bad matchup in the current meta. Control decks pack cards like Starshaping and Radiant Guardian which have no problem shrugging off the extra +2/+2 damage. On the other side of the spectrum, Bilgewater and Scout decks have grown extremely popular and are more than ready to race any elusive-based deck. The result is a constant stream of bad matchups that have chased away anyone trying to experiment with this card.
6.) Arbiter of the Peak
If Taric's play is scarce, Arbiter of the Peak's play is imperceptible. Players initially thought Arbiter would be a serviceable card, with many drawing comparisons to a Plaza Guardian with Overwhelm so it can't just be chump blocked. In practice though the few Support and/or Buff decks in the meta became viable by cutting cards like this and focusing more on cards useable early to mid-game. Players are just not interested in "late-game only" cards unless they bring game-swinging power circa Command LedrosBADCARDNAME or Captain Farron.
That's our list of overrated CotM cards -- were there any cards that surprised you? Any you think we omitted? Tell us below!
Comments
I think several of these cards were overrated because they came out early on in the reveals. If the reveal order had been reversed, many of these would not have impressed anyone. For example, Whimsy looks silly if you know about Hush.
After buffs / nerfs / reworks some of these may become playable in top tier decks, we never know. I'm wating for Taric rework.
Taric was my last CoM Champion craft, so...yay, me? I'm curious what his rework will be.