by OtakuMZ - 5 years ago     show comments

It is this time for some EVIL speculations with the reveal season in full flight for the new set: Rise of Shadows. As always, this is the most exciting time for deck builders, theorycrafters and all of you who are eager to see something new. We expect a lot of innovation in Standard not only because many staple cards are leaving the format, but also because we have 135 new cards to play with!

As with all the latest expansions, we (Nicholas a.k.a. hsdecktech and Martin a.k.a. OtakuMZ) will bring you our opinion that you can hopefully decide which cards you may want to craft in the first days. Beware of dusting trash rated cards early though as we may – and will – fail to guess some cards correctly even though we have quite a good record with this series. We both also do not agree all the times, those disagreements can be found below in the controversies section.

If you like a just want to see all cards sorted in an orderly fashion, please visit the Rise of Shadows Spoiler List. You know the drill, right? If not, find our rating system at the bottom of the article. So without further ado, let’s head into our power rankings.

Rise of Shadows Power Rankings

(Last update: April 8, 2019)

☆☆☆☆☆: EXCELLENT / STAPLE

☆☆☆☆:  GOOD / COMPETITIVELY VIABLE

☆☆☆: DECENT / NICHE PICK

☆☆: POOR / TOO SITUATIONAL

☆: UNPLAYABLE

A/B: ARCHETYPE DEFINING / BUILD-AROUND

C/T: COUNTER CARD / TECH  CHOICE

Controversies

• EVIL Constrictor is rated much higher by OtakuMZ than by DeckTech. OtakuMZ believes it to be a four star card.
• Martin is also very high on Nine Lives compared to Nicholas with his rating being 4 maybe even 5 stars. Nicholas on the other hand thinks that Deathrattle Hunter will not be as viable in Standard after the rotation of Carnivorous Cube.
• Nozari is valued higher by Martin for an OTK Shirvallah deck whereas Nicholas is more skeptical of a 10-cost minion working in such a deck.
• Vendetta is rated only mediocre by DeckTech where OtakuMZ sees a future for Burgle Rogue because of that card as it adds a huge tempo swing to the deck.

Annex I: About Power Rankings: Our Take on Card Reviews Explained

We might evaluate cards differently to what you think because the evaluations reflect our opinions based on my knowledge of the game. If you disagree we are happy to hear your point in the comments below, @hsdecktech or @OtakuMZ1978. We will try to respond to all inquiries and will take it into consideration to change ranks of the cards in question.

All evaluations will be made with Standard play mode and competitive play in mind. This is no ranking for neither Arena nor Wild, please remember this when reading. I will sort cards categories (see at bottom of the article). They will be sorted by mana cost from low to high. There is a changelog directly below the actual ranking above the category explanations at the bottom of this page.

Annex II: Ranking Categories

☆☆☆☆☆ (5 stars) Excellent: Cards that are top-notch or potentially overpowered. Most decks would like to run them, e.g. Dr. Boom.

☆☆☆☆ (4 stars) Good: Superior cards that will very likely be seen play frequently, e.g. Annoy-o-Tron.

☆☆☆ (3 stars) Decent: Cards that normally do not make the cut for competitive play but are overall well-designed and might fit into specific decks. These cards can be powerful in Arena though or really viable for newer players but you would not likely see them in tournaments.  Also, vanilla cards such as Chillwind Yeti fall into this category.

☆☆ (2 stars) Poor: Underwhelming and/or over-costed cards. These cards have inferior stats and/or underwhelming effects and will not see competitive play, e.g. Voodoo Doctor. Also grouped in this category are cards, that seem to be good at first glance. Yet, their effects are too situational so that most of the time, you will not be able to pull them off (e.g. Ghaz’rilla). The latter can arguably be fun and even powerful IF their effects go off. In any case, these cards I like to call “what-if cards” are so unreliable that they render themselves unusable in competitive play. Feel free to raise these cards to a “build-around” card or just have fun with!

☆ (1 star) Unplayable: Straight out bad stats, poor card design or simply useless cards that are even too bad for casual play? Do you have them in your deck? Delete Hearthstone! 😉 These cards you would not and should never put in your deck unless for fun or I missed something and the cards are sorted wrong, e.g. Magma Rager. If so, please leave me a comment! Okay, one exception here: you want to troll your opponent so that he thinks you are the worst Hearthstone player alive! 😆

A/B: Archetype Defining / Build-Around*: Cards that are only viable if you build your deck around them, e.g. Grim Patron.

C/T: Counter / Tech Choice*: Cards that mostly have underwhelming stats but are highly useful to counter specific Cards or to Play against a very uniform meta, e.g. Eater of Secrets

Controversies: These are generally cards for which the guys have rankings that differ by 2 or more stars; the card’s overall rating will usually be a split between the guys’ ratings. This is also the place where we might note when one rater has a different take on an entire archetype or class of cards than the other.

* The cards that appear under A/B and C/T will also be represented under 1 to 5 Stars ratings according to their suspected power level when included or played in the right deck.