As with every expansion, our community came out and voted on all the cards before Darkmoon Faire released and we published the results in our Darkmoon Faire Community Compendium. Let's see how well the community did a week into the expansion!
We're using HSReplay as a source of card play data as it is most indicative of how well these cards are doing.
The Magma Ragers
We're certainly going to be starting at the bottom since that is the most interesting of the bunch. We had 5 cards make it into the "Magma Rager Award" category which is for the worst voted cards on the list. First, let's look at those Magma Ragers, including an actual rager!
Well. Done.
The community did an excellent job predicting the worst cards of the bunch because of the five, four of them do not have enough data to even make the list of cards! The only card that makes the list just over a week into the expansion is Darkmoon Rabbit, which is seen in 0.2% of all decks in Diamond through Legend, and was only played around 1900 times. With one of the lowest card in deck winrates (36.2%), it looks like people may just be using it for achievement hunting.
The Top Three
What a great contrast! After looking at the worst cards, let's take a look at the highest-rated cards from Darkmoon Faire by starting off with the absolute best.
The community did a solid here too with Yogg being not only the highest-played Legendary card, but also the highest-played card out of everything from Darkmoon Faire with him showing up in 16% of all decks and being played over 100,000 times. This might be a bit of a cheat since Yogg has always been a fan favourite so the bias is absolutely a part of play here, but we're happy to see the fun and success of our tentacle friend. It doesn't even matter that the average deck winrate with Yogg is 46.7%, we won.
Moving on to High Exarch Yrel, this isn't as much of a home run as Yogg's position on our community's picks, but Yrel still remains a beast. As the 7th most-played Legendary card showing up in 4.5% of decks above midway Diamond, Yrel improved the already good Lightforged/Pure Paladin archetype to many players' dismay and is definitely here to stay. Well deserving of the top 3 spots, the community did another good job with this rating.
Tickatus is the final card in our top 3 with a rating of 81 which was equal to that of Yrel. This Demon has been seeing more play than her, being the 4th most played Legendary card and the 9th most played card overall. Warlocks are fairly popular out there on the Standard ladder and 8% of all higher-ranked decks have included Tickatus which further confirms that the community once again did an outstanding job rating this card, if we're only going by deck inclusions. Deck destruction isn't doing too well, with an average deck winrate of only 46.6%. Do you think that the popularity of this card confirms that the community rated it well?
The Group of Seven
Our top ten certainly didn't end with the above three! Let's take a quick look at the rest of them.
- Il'gynoth - 9.9% of decks, 55.5% deck winrate, and over 100,000 times played. Yup, we definitely did well on this one!
- Foxy Fraud - The third highest-played card from Darkmoon Faire with over 230,000 plays. Winrate is solid at 51.8%. Good job!
- Y'Shaarj, the Defiler - Similar to Yogg with high deck inclusion (13.8%) but a lower deck winrate (47%). Possibly overhyped like Tickatus.
- Bladed Lady - Demon Hunters got some serious cards! This deserves to be in the top with being included in 9.9% of all decks and a 58.2% average winrate. This is the highest deck winrate card in Darkmoon Faire.
- Solar Eclipse - Rest In Peace. We didn't do as well on this prediction, at least early on. 2.6% of decks have included this card but the deck winrate of 42.5% is at the bottom of the pole.
- Tenwu of the Red Smoke - A solid maybe! Not as popular as other Rogue cards (2.2% of all decks), and the winrate isn't fantastic (49%) but Combo Rogue could still improve.
- Swindle - Top 5 on times played with 210,000 plays, 7.8% of all decks, and deck winrate of 51.5%. We did good!
That leaves us with a solid four wins, a couple of maybes, and a definite unfortunate no for Druid.
What do you think about the Darkmoon Faire community compendium? We think we did an excellent job this time around, but there is certainly some room for improvement. Are there any cards you were disappointed didn't make the top 10 or just aren't popular in general?
Comments
Bladed Lady being one of the best cards in the entire expac was honestly quite easy to predict from the first moment I saw it. Could a 1-cost 6/6 rush be anything other than broken?
No joke, Rock Rager being an elemental, i actually had it Coined out vs me on T1 when opponent played some kind of Elemental Mage and i almost lost to it :D
Did the community rate Tickatus well? Not really. It's another one of those cards that are highly overhyped and end up not doing well due to a number of reasons. The first two times i played against a Warlock with Tickatus i lost 10 cards and i still won by simply hitting them in the face. Warlock lacks survivability and fatigue isn't really a win condition nowadays in Hearthstone. In contrast, everyone was shitting on E.T.C., God of Metal and it turned out to be a really solid and consistent win condition for Control Warrior. The report from Vicious Syndicate indicates that the deck could become stronger than Soul Demon Hunter which is astonishing.
I play a list with a demon package and the new 3/4 demon that gives lifesteal. This can surprise opponents greatly and completely turn the table! Also 10 less cards for DH‘s is relevant more often than not. I find it easier to destroy their resources than to try combat against all their healing. One less marrow slicer here, a twin slice there and suddenly they‘re lacking the damage for a final push! The matchup is still unfavored ofc but you can put up a serious fight
In Standard maybe, in Wild, Warlock has enough survival tools for days and Tickatus is a huge advantage against another slower deck.
The reason why tickatus isn't doing well is fairly obvious. The meta is swamped with dhunters and hunters. Both won't really care much losing 10 cards. But I'm convinced its more likely because the list isn't refined.
Same reason why ETC is doing well. Control warrior tends to do well against aggro.
If the meta shifts to slower decks like priests, then warlock may make a comeback.
Even if the meta slows down (which i doubt), the deck still lacks a way to survive incoming pressure. Priest won't just do nothing. They have plenty of strong cards to apply pressure and it isn't uncommon for Priests to copy cards from the opponent's deck. They will use Tickatus against Warlock players as well. And Priest has better tools for recovery and stabilization than Warlock. Control Warlock has too many weaknesses.
Credit card: 5/5
Gets weaker the more you use it, but lets you win more also obligatory in 50% of decks.
K'thir Ritualist & Darkmoon Rabbit I would only use in a constructed deck. The rest are good for arena.
the only time i ever played Darkmoon Rabbit is when i discovered it off a second Athletic Studies and at that point it was 8 mana instead of 10. Still terrible, but i was playing against a rez priest with 3 [Hearthstone Card (convincing infiltrators) Not Found] so it was a pretty epic play
I've got it from evolving Mogu. I would usually be mad, but it did a great job clearing 3 minions of my opponent.
I wonder how realistic it is to play it in a Menagerie deck to use as a board clear in the N'Zoth turn. Probably too situational.
Solar Eclipse is one of my favorite cards of this expansion. Though I wonder if the existence of Kiri, Chosen of Elune messes with inclusion rates. Since this card produces the eclipses?
I have seen a lot of decks use it for high cost combos like Cenarion Ward. I however find it having a lot of success midgame to double up card draw or finish of an opponent.
Despite all the negatives surrounding montization, I really enjoy this expansion. This year over all has produced really interesting sets.
Kiri, Chosen of Elune is played even less with only 1.2% of decks above Diamond 4 including it. Winrate remains bad at 43%.
Definitely not the right flavor for Druid right now, but that's okay, I still think Solar Eclipse is a cool card and there's a good chance we could see more support for it in the mini-set coming up that extends Darkmoon Faire or the first expansion next year.
That's one of the most fun things about card game releases. You get these tools that aren't immediately great but they almost always get a follow-up.
Yea I pulled Kiri but dropped it to o pure spells which has been working well.
I was mostly curious if having Kiri in a deck meant people only run the Eclipses as 1 offs. But I'm now thinking that doesn't matter as I assume the data just checks if it's in the deck not the number of copies.
That's my favorite thing about card games. The puzzle of "will this now work". I saw a deck on here as a hunter, maxima and ancient one combo. I think I now have to craft a Maxima!
Even if that was the case though, Kiri would show up in those decks, and Flux's point is, she isn't in decks either so either way that can't be it.
Friendly reminder that all of the staff reviews during reveal season are now, and have always been, completely 100% accurate and we are totally infallible. We have never gotten a single card wrong once in our lives. Nope. Not at all. Never. None.
I like the idea that even if one of you (somehow) makes an incorrect prediction, you can change the website's rating so it aligns with your predictions. Reality can literally be whatever you want.
Haha yeah I totally didn't call a specific 5 drop bad only to literally have it be one of the most important cards in my legend climb this season haha >_>.