The Cards We're Going to Miss Plenty When Rise of Shadows Rotates

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 Rise of Shadows and what we're going to miss the most from that set - enjoy!

Aesan - Waggle Pick

I regret that this Weapon was largely forgotten for the past year, as the games became only more and more based on mad tempo, generation and burst from hand. A lot of other cards came to outclass it, the mana cost became substantial. And whenever Rogue attempts to play a longer value game with its mediocre defenses and meager health pool, it usually doesn't end too well if everyone else has ultimate win conditions - using your face to remove minions tends to help your opponents just as much. 

I did like the kind of payoffs you could set up with Waggle Pick - it rewarded some smart planning ahead. When you couldn't quite do that, it was still about reacting to various developments in the best way possible. And to think there was a time where 8 damage done over two turns actually felt like a strong move once you got there, not terribly expensive.  

It's also one of the very few examples of a clever design when it comes to its interactions with the likes of Acidic Swamp Ooze. Sometimes you could navigate the board states so that any Weapon removal might end up in your favor regardless, and sometimes your opponent could try to mess it up if you took the risk with a big Edwin VanCleef.

Avalon - Heistbaron Togwaggle

Drawing 0-cost cards is fun and everyone that says the opposite has never really tried it. Heistbaron Togwaggle was the ultimate Lackey support, as well as the main reason why that mechanic did so well in Rogue. Even though Wondrous Wand was the pick 99% of the time, it provided great flexibility and value generation depending on what you needed in every single game.

Obviously, high-rolling a 0-cost Galakrond, Azeroth's End from Tog's goblet or a 0-mana Tog from Galakrond's battlecry was the ultimate dream that causes such a big tempo swing that it was often able to make the opponent concede, but (get ready for this) a lot of cards are good when they are free. One of my favorite combos was running a Togwaggle's Scheme, using it on an impactful minion (mostly Kronx Dragonhoof, but Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate is the way to go if you want to assert dominance) and then draw a bunch of copies of it for 0 mana. You'll be missed, king.

Shoutout goes to Magic Carpet, which I tried and had success with almost every class: it even turned Galakrond, the Nightmare's nerf into a powerful upside because of the 1-cost cards synergy. When combo'ed with Anka, the Buried, running 1 mana 1/1 Cursed Vagrants and Scrapyard Colossi into your opponent's minions and later getting control of the board of out nowhere was fun and satisfying at the same time.

BloodMefist - Arch-Villain Rafaam

I've loved Rafaam as a character since his iconic debut back in League of Explorers, where he was stealing decks and announcing himself. I longed for a Rafaam return and Rise of Shadows brought him back spectacularly: the entire Year of the Dragon basically starred him! Even though he never really got to shine in the competitive scene, Rafaam was (and arguably still is) the king of memes. I've made a deck featuring Arch-Villain Rafaam ever since he came out, and he is the only card I have ever crafted golden (a deck full of gold legendaries is big value). I'll miss him dearly when he rotates, and I hope he will make an appearance sometime in the future.

Demonxz95 - Swampqueen Hagatha

Swampqueen Hagatha is a Legendary minion I opened from a Tavern Brawl pack shortly after Rise of Shadows launched. It is one of those really cool cards that I wanted to be good, but sadly didn't really put out that much. A fairly disappointing trend on Shaman Legendaries is that they tend to have awesome effects that could do a lot, but end up seeing very little play - The Mistcaller, Hallazeal the Ascended, Kalimos, Primal Lord, and Zentimo are all examples that fall under this category. Unfortunately for Swampqueen Hagatha, she's no exception. She is easily top of the pack in style points, however, her effect is just really unique and so creative that I have to love this card.

Echo - Chef Nomi

When first revealed, so many people just agreed that Chef Nomi was a meme card. But shortly after the expansion launched, Nomi saw a bit of action in a Priest list dedicated to him, using Auctioneer and Northshire Cleric to cycle through your deck and eventually dump 42/42 worth of stats every turn for the next 3 turns (courtesy of Seance). While the deck was very much a flash in the pan, that hasn't stopped me from dusting him off once in a while and drawing my entire deck. While normally the stats would be overwhelming for an average deck to deal with due to how telegraphed the deck was, it often gave the opponents time to figure out how to play against it which -- although bad for the deck's win rate -- always made matches feel less one-sided, especially for a traditional combo deck.

FrostyFeet - Unleash the Beast (or none)

I've now scrolled through the card gallery of Rise of Shadows cards several times, and I have to say I probably won't be missing a single card from that expansion. Thinking back, I don't even consider the expansion as a failure or the cards bad - none of them just really hit me I guess. A card I considered the most was Unleash the Beast -- wonderful value and strong but not quite OP effect -- but since I don't play Hunter much (and most Hunters tend to be too aggressive to even include this spell), it's still not something I'd say I'll be missing.

OldManSanns - Recurring Villain

Recurring Villain is an awesome top-down card that just never really got its time to shine. Just read that flavor text! "Mwahahaha! You'll never catch him this time!"  It really drives home the notion of a dastardly cartoon villain who's escaping at the end of every episode only to come back next week. Dekkster had a semi-competitive Priest deck featuring him and pre-nerf Extra Arms that really made me fall in love with the card, but after Arms reverted to 3 mana, it was just too slow and inconsistent.

If you want to have some last-minute hijinks with Recurring Villain before he rotates, be sure to check out Sule's recent budget deck breakdown!

Sule - Exotic Mountseller

Exotic Mountseller is still one of my favorite cards to build decks around. The effect may just be a leveled-up version of Violet Teacher, but it's still a cool way to turn cheap spells into tempo. While Druid was -- and still is -- the obvious home for her, I had a blast over the last few years trying to figure out ways for other classes to take advantage of her exotic wares.

Do you agree with our choices? Which cards from Rise of Shadows are you going to miss the most after rotation? Let us know in the comments!