We're getting so close to the release of Scholomance Academy, excited to try out all the new cards. Things may not be quite as they seem though. Last time, I took you through cards that were hyped to be amazing, strong cards, but ended up not causing much of a stir. This time though, we're going to go in the opposite direction and look at cards that were overlooked and dismissed as not being playable, but ended up being extremely good cards.
Dr. Boom is perhaps the most quintessential example of cards that weren't thought to be great, but ended up being amazing. While people were praising Troggzor the Earthinator, many people didn't even give Dr. Boom the light of day, but in practice, these roles seemed to have reversed. Famously, Trump mentioned in his review that "I don't anticipate seeing much of Dr. Boom in Constructed". During his life-span though, he was possibly the most widely played card in the history of the game, and even garnered the nickname "Dr. Balanced".
Whilst the 7/7 body would often get hit by Big Game Hunter (which was widely being played at the time when it costed 3 mana), lots of his power came from the Boom Bots. If you could put a Boom Bot in your deck, you would do that. Even if they don't look that intimidating at first, they really were. His fame in Hearthstone was so huge that he eventually had an entire expansion themed around him as the main character, The Boomsday Project, and was part of the League of EVIL in Year of the Dragon. Had it not been for Dr. Boom's fame during the earlier days of Hearthstone, those would've never happened. Despite originating from World of Warcraft, he's so iconic to the game that he's essentially become a Hearthstone character.
If you started playing Hearthstone after Whispers of the Old Gods was released, then you never experienced the frustration of playing against Patron Warrior. The deck had some very vocal supporters and opponents, but with the Warsong Commander nerf (no longer giving summoned minions Charge), the deck lost its steam.
Upon reveal of the card however, it was simply dismissed as being nothing but a gimmick. In any other context, that may be true. If only we knew what was ahead of us.
Good ol' Christmas tree! If you were to tell anyone during the reveal season of The Grand Tournament that Mysterious Challenger would be a meta-defining card, they would've called you crazy. Paladin Secrets are pretty bad, right? Individually, yes. But, put them all together, and all of a sudden they become much more annoying to deal with, and that's not even considering the fact that you also just thinned your deck by 5 cards whilst also screwing up your opponent's turn.
Who could forget the original incarnation of Elise Starseeker, the leader of the League of Explorers? They'd later become arguably the most famous Hearthstone-original characters in the history of the game and would make their way into World of Warcraft (except Brann who was already in World of Warcraft).
Elise was initially thought to be one of those "fun, but gimmicky" cards that wouldn't see any serious competitive play. In the end, the card proved to be extremely good in Control decks where you could replace your final cards with Legendary minions at the last minute which would be better than holding onto situational removals when the decks are empty.
Thought of as the worst Quest during the reveal season of Journey to Un'Goro, it was extremely quick to prove how completely wrong everyone was and it actually ended up being the BEST Quest of the set. On day 1, it had already gained the attention of everyone by being surprisingly good. Since then, it is one of the only cards in the game to have been nerfed more than once, and the first ever since the game's full release.
Realistically any of the Princes from Knights of the Frozen Throne would belong here. They were all thought of as being horrible cards, but all of them saw play. Prince Taldaram saw play in Cubelock one set later, and Prince Valanar was played in Rogue decks of which many of them didn't run any 4-Cost cards anyway.
Prince Keleseth though is by far the most significant example of this. Keleseth was thought of as being arguably the worst card in the entire set and one of the worst Legendary minions in the game. In the end, it couldn't have been more opposite if it tried. Long story short, it ended up being one of the best cards of the set once people realized how good it actually was. It seems like when you make The Mistcaller Neutral and cheaper, it becomes a lot better and easier to use no matter what condition you give it.
Dr. Boom may be the original and most famous example of cards people thought were underwhelming but were actually amazing. Keleseth however has by far the largest gap of expectations versus reality out of any card in the entire game.
If Prince Keleseth has the largest gap of expectations versus reality out of every card in the game, then To My Side! is in a very comfortable second place. Thought of as a joke card that's an easy 100 Dust, and people saying "there's no way we get this card wrong". After all, what Hunter deck doesn't run minions? Seems ridiculous, right? You would be right, but No-Minion Hunter proved itself as a possible archetype where this card was played and people realized they were wrong to judge To My Side!]
Spectral Cutlass isn't quite as bad as the other cards in this article, and I don't think anyone would call it broken. That said, it's impossible to deny that the card is so much better than was initially predicted. It seems so slow to grow and Burgle Rogue already had Obsidian Shard, so it can't be that good, right?
Wrong. It turns out that this card was pretty great for Burgle Rogue being a Lifesteal weapon that would grow in Attack with weapon buffs and in Durability with what your deck is naturally supposed to do.
Star Aligner was voted as the fourth worst card in The Boomsday Project (only ahead of Harbinger Celestia, Unpowered Mauler, and Spark Drill). The condition seems absolutely impossible to activate. You would truly need the stars to align in order to even have a remote chance of getting the effect off.
Or at least, that's what we all thought. It turns out that fulfilling the requirement was a lot easier in the right deck than we thought it would be, and that this card is actually not that bad.
Making Mummies was predicted to be the worst Quest in Saviors of Uldum. Since Reborn would be a mechanic exclusive to Uldum (with the exception of the two callback cards from Galakrond's Awakening), there would be no direct future support for it. Contrary to popular prediction though, it turned out to be pretty good.
I could've also put Devoted Maniac on this list, although perhaps it's wrong to given that it's basically run in Galakrond decks because it needs to be even if it isn't actually as bad as it was predicted to be.
While not everyone figured Galakrond, the Wretched would be terrible, it was widely thought of as the worst Galakrond due to the random, unreliable nature of the Battlecry. Random Demons aren't really a great ability as the variance is just way too high. But whilst the Battlecry may have been underwhelming compared to the other iterations of Galakrond, it made up for it with its Zoo potential thanks to the Invoking abilities flooding the board and proved itself a formidable card.
That would be it for these two articles of overhyped and underhyped Hearthstone cards. When you open your Scholomance packs on August 6th, don't be too sure that any cards that were predicted to be good will see play, or that cards that were predicted to be bad won't.
Comments
I believe Fencing Coach was rated very high, because it was suppose to fit so well with Inspire mechanics.
then, the expansion came out and both Coach and Inspire flopped really har
I used Fencing Coach in my Exodia Paladin in Wild a few expansions ago.
It really wasn't good at the time, though, no.
My personal “most under hyped card” was [Hearthstone Card (Skull of the Man’ari) Not Found]. At the time I hadn’t been playing much Warlock, and probably not paying super close attention to the upcoming cards, but I just didn’t see it’s potential. Boy was I so wrong!!! But then again, now that I am thinking about it I don’t remember it really taking off until Kobolds anyway with Cube and Void Daddy coming out.
It also happened to be my free Legendary Weapon at the Knights launch, so eventually I was happy to have it
Skull of the Man'ari came out in Kobolds & Catacombs, as did all Legendary weapons at that time :P
No Sludge Belcher or Piloted Shredder?
Sludge Belcher wasn't really considered an underhyped card. It was exactly what was needed at the time that aggro ran rampant on ladder. It was the replacement for Fen Creeper that some decks ran and the more popular Sen'jin Shieldmasta (though many decks included both Tazdingo and Sludge Belcher).
Piloted Shredder on the other hand, yes, there were a few people who undervalued it, definitely more than Sludge Belcher, but it also received a lot of praise upon reveal. This was a better Harvest Golem which saw plenty of play at the time due to its staying power on the board.
Dr. Boom definitely deserved the slot in the article. Props to Demon for another great showcase!
Dr. Boom already represents GvG on this list, which is a much more "historic" example.
As for Sludge Belcher, I will admit that I haven't done research as to how Naxx cards were hyped, or even Classic cards from the very beginning of Hearthstone. If it really was underhyped, then that's my bad. I started playing in Blackrock Mountain, so I'm not familiar with the reveal season of Naxxramas other than the fact that it was way too long for its own good.
Galakrond, the Wretched's battlecry used to be much more consistent and stronger before the latest rotation, especially with all these dormant demons introduced. Really a pity, it used to be my favorite Galakrond deck.
The 5/7 demon warlock got as well as the big demons Demon Hunter got (especially Pit Commander) do enough to keep the power level of it higher
Not really, sure the dormants can be a bummer but overall the demons are much larger nowadays. Even the dormant Demons shine against slower decks.
Wait wait wait wait wait, Prince Valanar actually saw play???
If we ignore the requirement, it's a pretty good card. Rogue didn't have any good 4 drops back then, so it could be played with minimal changes to the deck.
It saw play in some Rogue decks in Knights of the Frozen Throne since many Rogue decks at the time didn't run any 4-Cost cards anyway, except for maybe Sherazin. Therefore it didn't really warp your deck to put it in there, and it was Taunt and healing for Rogues which they appreciated.
When Fal'dorei Strider came out in the very next set, it stopped seeing play. Its glory was short-lived, but it was there.
I was so shocked when they revealed Elise Starseeker at Blizzcon 2015, like I was mind blown I think I cried with so much excitement :P
Same thing happened during Un'goro when they revealed Elise the Trailblazer. Whhhaaaat?!?! You get to open a card pack DURING a game! :O OMG how is that even possible? xD
3rd time... not so much excitement
Good old Star aligner druid, one of the most broken decks to ever crawled through the wild sinkhole
Was completely stunned that corridor creeper wasn’t on the list! I’d also agree with someone who mentioned earlier that supercollider was also very underhyped. Great article nonetheless and enjoyed reading it
I think Corridor Creeper gets a pass from me because it was revealed in the final dump of cards - it was for sure widely panned, but I want to be generous and say that perhaps people weren't completely understanding how it would work.
I remembering being way wrong on both CC and To My Side!, but TMS always felt more insane because No Minion Hunter was not a thing at all before that expansion really, and the picture the cards painted of the deck just didn't feel good. How wrong we were!
I still run a Spell Hunter from time to time in Wild. Mainly as a way to quickly clear the “play spells” gold quest.
Yeah, I remember people discussing if it was going to be only from your minions and that would have made it a lot worse. Even in Baku Paladin playing it on 3-4 for 0 mana was a big deal but if it didn't count opponent minions it would not be played that much in anything else.
While some "Hearthstone personalities" were saying Dr. Boom "is no Troggzor", as in not as strong, more than a few competitive players recognized his potential, with one naming top 3 cards of the set "Dr. Boom, left boombot, right boombot".
The card was only Underhyped by a few people, although, these were people that a lot of the community listens to.