The end of the Year of the Gryphon is at its final moments, and with it, Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy, and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire will leave the Standard format to join Wild. Therefore, it is time to look back and see what we're going to leave behind when the rotation hits.
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 Ashes of Outland and what we're definitely not going to miss the most from that set - enjoy!
In case you missed them, here's what we going or not going to miss from the other Year of the Phoenix sets:
- The Cards We're Going to Miss Plenty When Ashes of Outland Rotates
- The Cards We're Going to Miss Plenty When Scholomance Academy Rotates
- The Cards We're Going to Miss Plenty When Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Rotates
Avalon - Librams
I can definitely see why our Echo is going to miss Librams, but at the same time... that's exactly why I'm glad they'll go away (hopefully) forever. Yes, because being able to boast such a flexible and consistent package is bound to make up for a frustrating gameplay experience. You managed to drop an Aldor Truthseeker on curve? Sure thing: now all your minions have at least +1/+1 thanks to Libram of Wisdom. You're very close to winning the game? Libram of Hope gets in the way. After a long time, you were finally able to outvalue your opponent and are ready to close the match? Nope, Lady Liadrin resets both the game's equilibrium and your chances to win.
Just too much, and too consistent. Back when they got released, Paladin was in a deep identity crisis, and I am glad Team 5 printed them, but it's definitely time for them to go and leave place to something else.
BloodMefist - Kayn Sunfury
The release of Demon Hunter was...turbulent. So many cards were so busted for so long, and we had our first set of nerfs within one day! Even though Kayn Sunfury fell out of favor and isn't seen as much as he used to, he represents the re-introduction of Charge and an extremely frustrating lack of counterplay that I will not miss. Having a board full of Taunts might just not matter since DH can bypass them all for 4-mana and get an extra 3-damage on top of it. Whether it was to kill a priority minion or just smack me in the face, I vehemently hated how this guy would find me even after I hid behind my servants and cannot wait to see him disappear (unless he gets added to the Core set - please don't get added to the Core set).
Demonxz95 - Incanter's Flow
Is Incanter's Flow the most loathsome card to come from Ashes of Outland? Not necessarily, but I can't exactly say it's a good time either. Too often would I encounter a Mage opponent playing it on curve, and all I could do was just groan. Here we go with this shit again. It doesn't help that all-spell decks being super popular meant that the effect would just apply to your entire deck. That being paired with a second copy, and it's just not fun. Of course Incanter's Flow is not the only reason (or perhaps even the most egregious one) that Spell Mage was just so annoying, but it is the most annoying one. I happily say bye-bye.
Echo - Skull of Gul'dan
Being one of the 4 Demon Hunter cards to be nerfed day 2 of the class being out, Skull of Gul'dan has continued to be a staple in most builds of the class, and for good reasons. The amount of times this card is played against me and I cross my fingers and hope is way higher than probably any other card in the game. It just enables such insane turns that feels miserable to play against and due to how outcast works, there's not much counterplay to prevent the inevitable storm. While there are some decks that I love that will miss it, not having to deal with the opponent clearing my board and gaining a load of life on turn 6 is enough to where I'm happy to see this card gone.
GoliathTheDwarf - Scrapyard Colossus
Ok, who around here got really tired of losing to Big Priest during times where it was popular? *Looks over sea of raised hands* Yeah, me too.
I hated this large, sticky card that could be copied to fill the board or resurrected like a constantly rebuilding and unscalable wall. It was just not fun for me to play against. Cards like this are why I like cards like Devolving Missiles and if I have to let go of a solution card, I'm happy to let go a problem one as well.
Linkblade91 - Soul Mirror
I like winning and holding the board, with cards like Bearon Gla'shear, Soulciologist Malicia, Arbor Up, etc. helping me generate a wide army. Soul Mirror is a one-stop answer to such a strategy, destroying everything I hold dear in a matter of seconds. It's extremely frustrating to watch happen and I won't miss it in the slightest. That you could generate more from Renew or whatever really set me off.
Sule - Overgrowth
Ramp is a tough thing to balance. Decks that get to do powerful things before their opponents are usually happy to do so, and Overgrowth (when combined with Nature Studies, Innervate, and Lightning Bloom to get it out even faster) always swung the power level of whatever game it was part of. It even felt awful as the Druid player. Did you get Overgrowth early? Great, then you're probably going to win. No? Well, I guess you don't get to play this game. I'm not sure I despise it, but I'm certainly not going to miss it.
Do you agree with our choices? Which cards from Ashes of Outland are you NOT going to miss the most after rotation? Let us know in the comments!
Comments
Something quite interesting about the cards above that I'll point out. During AoO release, most of these cards were considered too weak, hell even Aldor Attendant and Libram of Justice got buffed and Incanter's Flow was hardly seen. Just goes to show how OP Year of the Dragon was, that those expansions had to rotate first before we could truly hate these cards.
I despised Libram pally after a while, purely coz it was such a boring, linear deck. Pity Paladin didn't get much else in Year of the Gryphon (aside from secret Pally). After rotation, Paladin will be in a rough spot, so here's hoping the next expansion has some cards that can create a new archetype for the class.
Librams is pratically the only thing keeping paladin relevant. It would be interesting to see where team5 would steer the class now, since nearly everything they've given to paladin pales in comparison with the broken shit they give to every other class. Even the secrets is getting a massive power level down with the rotation of Oh My Yogg! which was by far the best secret paladin has, more or less an indication at how shitty the secrets paladin has in general, and how board-less the game has gone since the start of stormwind.
i will miss incanter's flow and im sad for the second nerf it got (love only spell mage and dirty combos) ok now you can hate me
As I see it, no need to hate you.
If Incanter's Flow was so popular was not just because it was a strong card, but also because there were people that enjoyed it.
Everyone likes cards that someone else finds controversial, so no need to feel like you deserve hatred!
Outcast was always a funny concept to me.
The purpose of digital CCG was to create mechanics that players can't do in real life, like extract random cards from decks, steal cards from decks etc.
....oh, you can't rearrange cards in your own hands???
Yeah, this is probably one of the biggest misses from the first two years of Demon Hunter.
It is also true that we rarely received a high focus on the Outcast mechanic.
Opinion me, but Outcast is a trash evergreen mechanic, and a worse class evergreen mechanic. Where Overload, Combo, and Choose One are super flexible and can go on pretty much any type of card, Outcast is only good in very specific decks. Your deck has to consist of cheap cards you can easily play, since otherwise your effects might get stuck. Something like Star Student Stelina is doomed to fail because the effect doesn't help an aggro game plan, which makes the entire keyword nothing but a crippling downside.
It's fine as a mechanic and they have printed interesting Outcast effects, but it's not something the class should be shackled to forever. I would not complain if they ditched Outcast entirely for a bit and tried for something else in DH.
Agreed, I think I even wrote a little essay/long forum post on the problems with outcast. Despite that, it is thematically interesting and diversifies pretty well: outcast itself is very limiting, but left-/right-most mechanics don't need to be. See Zai, the Incredible and Kurtrus Ashfallen for good examples that don't punish you for using expensive cards.
Says you, I loved and will miss Libram Pally. Mostly because it was core to an Archetype I liked, Pure Pally, which will surely die out in standard.
Kayn Sunfury - one of my favourite DH cards.
In my experience didn`t see much play lately.
All other cards I will not miss in Standard.
Hopefully Kayn gets the Diamond treatment. Outland's diamond card hopefully will be happening around the new year.