The end of the Year of the Phoenix is around the corner, and with it Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum and Descent of Dragons will leave the Standard format to join Wild. Therefore, it is time to look back and see what we're going to leave behind in the next few days.
For this exact purpose, we present you a series of articles in which the staff of Out Of Cards will share with everyone the cards we'll miss and the ones we'll be glad to not face anymore.
This time, we're taking a look at Descent of Dragons (and Galakrond's Awakening) and what we're definitely not going to miss the most from that set - enjoy!
Aesan - Galakrond, the Unspeakable
Ugh. Just ugh. Guilty as I am of enjoying a good Control deck packed to the brim with Value, this was always way, way too much. Being stuck in a Priest mirror where two Galakronds generate minions (which in turn might generate other minions or cards) from the class almost every turn was surely deserving of its own level of Hell. Not to even mention the range of randomness involved in this whole cycle.
All other Galakronds were relatively alright in terms of design space, but this one just brought back the worst parts of Deathstalker Rexxar with it. Very relieved to see it fly away, hopefully, we will never again be exposed to a potentially infinite generation engine as the Hearthstone team learns their lessons.
Avalon - Kobold Stickyfinger
This one might seem like a very unusual pick for many of view, as there are definitely more annoying cards from this set, but I chose this one for a pretty simple reason: it is a hard and ruthless counter to a whole category of card types. During the last year, every time a Tier 1 deck revolved around using Weapons, everyone in the format started running this guy: while it was an effective strategy, as the Year of the Dragon gave us a lot of good weapons (Wrenchcalibur, Stormhammer, Ancharrr just to name a few), most of the times Kobold Stickyfinger felt like the ultimate middle finger when you wanted to play a niche deck in a weapon-based class (not to talk about the feeling of getting your weapon stolen and not just shattered: Hoard Pillager was just a dead card in that situation).
A clear example of what I'm saying is Doomhammer, a Weapon that was never that oppressive or omnipresent, but that was forced to pay for the power level of other archetypes.
All in all, I'm quite happy Stickyfinger will rotate and only Acidic Swamp Ooze will stick in the next Standard meta as Weapon removal.
BloodMefist - Phase Stalker
OhmygodIhatethiscard. This cheeky little bastard keeps spamming Secrets every damn turn, making it continuously difficult to remove or play around. Things only got worse when Pack Tactics came out in Ashes of Outland and I had to deal with a second secretive hellspawn. Every time this little guy got played I audibly rolled my eyes as I knew I would've had to deal with a barrage of bullshit before I could start playing the game like a regular person instead of tiptoeing around every possible Secret that would royally screw me over.
Demonxz95 - Flik Skyshiv
FrostyFeet - Hoard Pillager
Avalon is obviously wrong about Kobold Stickyfinger - what a god-tier tech card - the real Pirate annoyance was Hoard Pillager. To be honest, the card itself wasn't that annoying, but the fact that it was abused in some meta-defining (and definitely frustrating) decks like Bomb Warrior due to Wrenchcalibur and Evolve Shaman's Boggspine Knuckles will sour my memories of the card. Hoard Pillager was basically not only a solid choice for these decks but a tech against Ooze-techs. I really would've liked its effect changed from being a Battlecry to a Deathrattle, but rotation will do.
Since this is the last article, I have to give an honorary mention to the year-long Lackey mechanic, one of the prime offenders of the abundance of Discover/random creation in Standard. Won't miss it at all.
Sule - Blazing Battlemage
It's not that I hate Blazing Battlemage - my main problem with it is that it fit too neatly into any aggressive archetype to the point that it was an auto-include if you were building an aggressive deck and realized you hadn't put in 30 cards yet. It had no downside, no deck-building quirks or synergies: it was just a 2/2 for 1 - of course, you had to consider it if you were building an aggro deck. As someone who likes building fast decks, it was pretty boring.
Flik isn't a card I hate, like, I do hate the cards I chose for the Rise of Shadows and Descent of Dragons, but it's just that it's not really that fun to play against. The card is a really strong removal on a not-too-shabby body and a bonus effect that can hypothetically be played around, but it's not really fun to do so. It results in the card just generally being too powerful for my tastes.