Rotating Hearthstone Cards That Didn't Get a Chance to Shine - Decklists To Try Before Rotation

The beginning of the Year of the Phoenix draws near; this year's HoF candidates rotated out recently and just a few days ago we were able to play an exclusive adventure to fully understand the story of Illidan Stormrage, the basic hero of the new Demon Hunter class.

The future is full of excitement, but we still have to wait a couple days for the new expansion so... why not looking at those cards that we've never really considered playing and give them a proper farewell?

In this article we'll list 9 different decks, each one containing at least one card that has seen little to no play throughout the past two years.
Are you ready?

Disclaimer: Yes, these cards actually exist. No, these decks aren't supposed to be the highest tier. If you have the cards and are looking for a bit of fun we suggest you try out the following lists; otherwise, just hold your dust for something better like Maiev Shadowsong or Kayn Sunfury :)

Druid - Spirit of the Raptor and Ravencaller

This deck was originally meant to be a Hand Carpet druid with honorable inclusions like Witchwood Apple and Bewitched Guardian, but the HoF rotation deprived us of the best two cards in that list: Mountain Giant and Leeroy Jenkins. So here's what we came up with instead.
In a Lackey centered meta, there are often 1-health minion on the board, so Spirit of the Raptor will work as both a Magic Carpet bullet and a fringe card-draw engine, fairly important in an aggro deck that wants to push damage as fast as possible. Ravencaller covers a similar role, being one (if not the only) value generator, which can also provide you some cherries: Chameleos and Spirit of the Rhino are two of the most interesting gifts, but don't forget my boi, Eternium Rover and Bloodsail Flybooter.
Such a sweet gem, we hope you'll have fun!

Hunter - Bloodscalp Strategist

I've always loved this card, but I've never been able to make it work, mainly for two problems: terrible stats (at 3/4 it would be much better and not broken by any means) and lack of a strong curve. The only 2 mana Hunter weapon in Standard is Headhunter's Hatchet, released in the same set, but with zero synergy and not a memorable effect.
What brought me to consider Bloodscalp Strategist for this article is the introduction of a permanent weapon, with infinite charges as long as you meet a (pretty simple) condition: that's right, Stormhammer. Here's a really good Highlander build I found on the internet, but since I changed one card (and made the list worse overall) now I can proudly say it's my deck (that's how deckbuilding works, right?)!

Mage - Celestial Emissary and Spellzerker

If you try to build a Standard Elemental Mage, you'll notice that there are a lot of cards that you may want to include because of the tribe synergy, but that you'll eventually leave out because that's how bad they are. Bonfire Elemental, Scorch, Arcanosaur: I'm looking at you. So for this time let's just settle at one with this Chump's list (credit and gameplay), which also runs Spellzerker for some nice extra damage on the burst.

Paladin - Paragon of Light and Ghostly Charger

Yep, both these cards exist (one even got nerfed). I genuinely think that the first one is such a cool minion, but it just happened to exist in times when Paladin was Odd token, Even value, OTK or mech. Unfortunately, none of these builds have a place for Paragon. But hey, let's just look at all the other 69 archetypes Uther has been given in the meantime and let's figure out if there's some sort of synergy.
Here's the list: do you think we succeeded?

Priest - Coffin Crasher

Okay, everyone hates Big Priest, but come on: give Coffin Crasher some love. He's only been playable for a small amount of time in old Mecha'thun Priest. This deck features some really cool cheat mechanics (Alarm-o-Bot above all) that may lead to funny shenanigans and huge backfires. Handle with caution!

Rogue - Raiding Party

Rogue got very few bad cards during the Year of the Raven. One of those was Raiding Party, until Valeera got a decent weapon like Waggle Pick. Remember this list? It has some new cards, but it was pretty much the undisputed tier 1 deck right after Rise of Shadow's release.
I know, Raiding Party was good in Wild with Kingsbane even before RoS came out, but this spell has had just a single month of playtime in Standard and it just got reverted to its former glory. Let's take it as a hint to play some good ol' Aggro Rogue.
Worth noting: Leeroy Jenkins we miss you.

Shaman - Zentimo

Such a cool effect, but so difficult to be properly exploited. In its 16 months of Standard, Zentimo has seen play just for a week, before Galakrond Shaman got nerfed to the ground for the second time. In the end, Rastakhan's Rumble did really have a lot of interesting cards that never really saw play unfortunately. Here's Echo's take on Highlander Dragon Shaman.

Warlock - Spirit of the Bat and Hir'eek, the Bat

Handbuff Warlock. Yeah. Let's see who can get the biggest Hir'eek with all these Galakrond, the Wretched's Imps fooling around on the board. Again, thanks to Echo for the list.

Warrior - Akali, the Rhino and Untamed Beastmaster

Untamed Beastmaster was hands down one of my favorite cards from Rastakhan's Rumble: I've used it in a ton of games, with bad results but a lot of fun. Here's a deck for it to shine. I included a single copy of Sweeping Strikes because with all these Rush minions it will almost certainly help you to gain control of the board or it will trigger a couple more times Akali's sweet Overkill bonus.
Overall, one of the most synergistic decks.

Do you like any of these decks? Do you have any cards or archetypes you would have liked to see showcased?