The Cards We're Going to Miss Plenty When Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Rotates

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 at 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 Madness at the Darkmoon Faire and what we're 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

Avalon - Zai, the incredible

Demon Hunter is the class that goes for the opponent's throat without toying around much, and that's for this reason that Team 5 felt safe printing a value generator like Zai in the class - playing it would've almost always resulted in a tempo loss rather than a strong move, so it's reasonable to understand why the card saw absolutely no play throughout its entire existence in Standard.

That being said, this didn't stop me from trying out Zai, the Incredible with a multitude of tools: Y'Shaarj, the Defiler, N'Zoth, God of the Deep, Nethrandamus, 0-mana Strongman, Jace Darkweaver, Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate. I probably lost more games than I actually won while playing this card, but it's not something I regret, not even a tiny bit.

I deeply invite Team 5 to print more "win-more" cards like this for Demon Hunter, that allow slow/janky players like myself to try off-meta (but still relatively powerful) strategies in unusual classes.

BloodMefist - Hysteria

As a Control Warlock and Priest main by trade, I was ecstatic when Hysteria first got revealed, and slowly proceeded to be saddened by its 2 nerfs, toning down the power and flexibility of the card. I understand the need for the removal of the Wretched Tiller interaction, but it still saddens me. Even after being nerfed to 4-mana, the card is simply a fantastic board clearing tool. Playing around with other damaging or board presence effects to get an optimal board clear was reminiscent of Defile plays. Sometimes you had to buff your enemy's minions or kill your own in order to get the perfect board state, and achieving a full clear felt so satisfying.

Demonxz95 - Sword Eater

As I mentioned before, I am a Pirate Warrior player: it was how I reached Legend for the first time. Therefore, here I am again with more Pirate Warrior, but it's a card that I actually put in the deck this time! Sword Eater is just a really powerful unit that you always put into every decklist of the archetype.

There's not really a whole lot more to say about this one since it's a very simple card with a very simple role, but it's an integral part of every Warrior deck and if Pirate Warrior were to survive rotation, then I do hope to see a worthwhile replacement for it.

Echo - Nazmani Bloodweaver

This card and Miracle Priest in the whole have been a guilty pleasure of mine since the hotfix that guaranteed Nazmani Bloodweaver's discounts to not land on already free cards. Sure, the deck can be miserable to play against when the opponent just has the nuts and kills you on turn 5 through the power of luck and APM, and to that I say Hearthstone is a zero sum game, and while that person might have not had any fun that match I certainly had the time of my life. I have a history of trying to make every class have some form of miracle deck, and this card was the engine that finally made Priest have that form of playstyle, much to the dismay of Dragon Soul.

GoliathTheDwarf - Deck of Lunacy

I'm sure you're sensing a theme here right now. Yes, I enjoy Chaos Mage. No, it's not my primary deck. Yes, the year of the Phoenix gave us some fun cards in each of the year's sets that enhanced the playstyle in different ways. True to its name, this card is just bonkers and could even be game-changing by giving you high cost discounted spells from other classes like Survival of the Fittest. Was that something that made it a top ladder-worth card? By no stretch, but it was still really fun and I'm sad to see it go. On the bright side, playing it in Wild is even more fun crazy chaos, so you can find me over there. 

Linkblade91 - N'zoth, god of the Deep

Whispers of the Old Gods' N'Zoth, the Corruptor is one of my favorite Legendaries, for all the decks it encourages. Focused Legendaries are fine but the more ways you can use one the better it is, in my opinion. N'Zoth, God of the Deep from Madness at the Darkmoon Faire is very much in a similar vein, pushing me to create a wide variety of Menagerie decks in Standard and Wild. Paladin, Warrior, Druid...they all saw some N'Zoth action. You usually try to mix it in with some big minions for maximum potential, and that's exactly what I did! Fizzy Elemental, Carousel Gryphon, Lokholar the Ice Lord: I like dropping big guys down, and reviving them is just icing on the cake. And yet I hate Resurrect Priest...weird. Never thought buffing him to 9-Mana would matter, but I guess it did. Gonna miss ya, big guy.

Sule - Bumper Car & Parade Leader

I was a big fan of Rush Warrior, and these two minions created such a cool synergy (along with Playmaker) that made it feel like the deck always had a way to answer the opponent's board if I knew what I was doing. Rush Warrior was one of the kings of board-based decks, and (if you'll allow me onto my soapbox for a moment) frankly any meta where Rush Warrior couldn't do anything was a meta that felt awful to play in. It was that simple for me: If I got to play Rush Warrior, I was happy. I'll miss these two most of all.