EPTIntroduction
Hello everyone and welcome to the League of Explorers card reviews. This will follow a similar format to the TGT card review where myself and a few other high-level players gave our initial takes on each card. We have changed our rating system somewhat after the feedback we got during TGT to hopefully make it more clear.
- 1=Unplayable
- 2=Almost certainly unplayable
- 3=Bad
- 4=Meh
- 5=Decent
- 6=Playable
- 7=Good
- 8=Very Good
- 9=Extremely Good
- 10=Overpowered
While this scale is far from ideal -- and still somewhat subjective -- it allows us to differentiate more between low-quality cards than the previous scale and it makes it more clear just what a certain rating means. As a result, our average ratings are a lot higher than in TGT. Having said that, we are a lot more optimistic about this incoming set than about TGT so even if we would be using the old rating system, the average rating would still be higher. We are also no longer use the ‘’possible rating’’ we used in TGT because we have already seen all the cards coming out. This set of cards is less combo-oriented than the Inspire effects of TGT.
Today’s guests are:
- Deathstar v3, creator of the Midrange Hunter with Deathlord
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/images/social/twitter.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/twitchbutton.png)
- SenX, creator of the SenX Hunter
- Ersee, creator of the Midrange Shaman with Neptulon
- Modernleper, Team Archon writer
This Week's Powerlevel
If we were to rate the different wings based on which ones you should buy if you are on a budget, this one is absolutely the best. It introduces some of the best cards in the set through Keeper of Uldaman, Mounted Raptor, Unearthed Raptor and Tunnel Trogg. All of these cards have the ability to strongly affect and shift the meta so there will be a lot of experimentation being done.
Here are the individual rankings for each player:
Card Rankings
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/LeagueOfExplorers/LoECard_brannmini.jpg)
Playable In
Current Rating: 4
Brann Bronzebeard
This card just has all around poor stats -- 3/4 is the benchmark for three-drops nowadays -- and the effect suffers from significant diminishing returns. Most Battlecries aren’t really giving you extra benefit if they are triggered twice. That said, there is some excitement around this card. For a full list of meta cards which activate this card see this list.
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/LeagueOfExplorers/LoECard_etherealconjurer.jpg)
Playable In
Current Rating: 4
Ethereal Conjurer
The closest comparison for this card is Azure Drake but with a slightly different stat budget and no Spell Power. Generally speaking, three health is bad because there are so many two mana spells that deal three damage. Even if Discover turns out to be significantly better than draw, the lack of Spell Power will still probably make this creature worse than Azure Drake.
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/LeagueOfExplorers/LoECard_excavatedevil.jpg)
Playable In
Current Rating: 4
Excavated Evil
This card is in the same slot as Holy Nova and we honestly wonder if this card isn’t simply worse than Holy Nova: the healing that Holy Nova provides is very frequently used and can't be undersold. This is ignoring the fact that it also gives your enemy a board clear, which is generally strong against Priests because they rely on board control.
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/LeagueOfExplorers/LoECard_notakebanana.jpg)
Playable In
Current Rating: 4
Fierce Monkey
While this card looks really good on paper -- he is after all a Silverback Patriarch on steroids -- in reality there are no current Warrior decks that would want to run this card. A new more midrange Warrior would have to appear for this card to become played.
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/LeagueOfExplorers/LoECard_keeperofulda.jpg)
Playable In
Midrange PaladinCurrent Rating: 8
Keeper of Uldaman
This card is also up for best card in the set since it can be used to buff your own tokens or bring a big enemy to a much more manageable size. In a way, this card works similar to the pre-nerf Tinkmaster Overspark only much less random. Tinkmaster also suffered -1/-2 stats for its effect compared to the stats of a normal minion at three mana, this card only gets -1/-1 as compared to a yeti. If you combine this with the fact that 3/4 in stats are really good, this card is shaping itself up for awesomeness all around. The only downside of this card is that it crowds the already busy four-slot for Paladins with Shredder and Truesilver -- both of which really can’t be cut -- so having six turn four plays might be too much.
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/LeagueOfExplorers/LoECard_livingraptor.jpg)
Playable In
Aggro DruidMidrange Druid
Current Rating: 7
Mounted Raptor
This card is a superior version of Harvest Golem: a 3/2 is better than 2/3 because it trades with Shredder the next turn. The Deathrattle is equal or slightly worse than that of Harvest Golem but some one drops can completely blow your opponent out of the water such as Injured Kvaldir and Dust Devil. To make up for those, however, there are plenty of 1/1 and 1/2s that are strictly worse. Also Druid doesn’t currently have any other 3-drop -- besides Shade of Naxxramas -- which has already been cut in some Druid lists.
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/LeagueOfExplorers/LoECard_Reliquary.jpg)
Playable In
Current Rating: 1
Reliquary Seeker
We have no idea what Blizzard was thinking with designing this card as it's just never going to trigger. Gormokk the Impaler -- which same some play during TGT and was rated well by some card reviews -- saw very little play after being tried out for a while because the effect is just too inconsistent.
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/LeagueOfExplorers/LoECard_tombspider.jpg)
Playable In
Beast HunterCurrent Rating: 4
Tomb Spider
This is essentially a worse version of the Gorillabot: it has a worse stat point and generally speaking beasts have fewer good cards so there is a smaller chance to get something good from this guy.
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/LeagueOfExplorers/LoECard_Tunneltrogg.jpg)
Playable In
Midrange ShamanCurrent Rating: 7
Tunnel Trogg
With this card, and the many other low-mana Shaman cards introduced in TGT, Blizzard really seems to be making an effort to give the Shaman early game some much needed boost. Cards with 1/3 for one mana are generally extremely strong in the proper archetype -- see Voidwalker and Mana Wyrm -- so this guy will probably fit in there just fine as well. Another reason why 1/3’s are becoming more powerful is that we are gradually seeing 3/2s fall off in favor of 2/3 two-drops.
The effect looks nice but in reality it will probably not be strong enough to build a full overload deck off of. That said, it can still be nice to play this and then get the +2 attack from Feral Spirits on turn three or +1 from a Totem Golem. Where this card is a significant step-up from the other one mana 1/3’s is that this card is also quite good in the late game. There are plenty of Shaman cards with two overload that can be nicely combo’d with this Tunnel Trogg to create a pretty decent 3/3 creature. With the addition of Desert Camel, people will start running both Tunnel Trogg and Zombie Chow.
The question will be whether this effect will double dip: the wording would suggest that if you play Tunnel Trogg into a turn two Totem Golem and turn three Totem Golem, since you have two locked mana crystals on turn three, you might get a total of +3 attack for two overloads paid. Overall will this card be enough to bring Shaman back? Probably not but it will go some way to make the deck more competitive.
![[image loading]](http://www.liquidhearth.com/staff/Hayl_Storm/LeagueOfExplorers/LoECard_zombieraptor.jpg)
Playable In
Tempo RogueCurrent Rating: 8
Unearthed Raptor
This one is another of the top cards released in this set and it might be enough to turn Tempo Rogue into something viable. While this card looks really win-more on paper, its stats are still really strong. Even if this cards gets the Haunted Creeper Deathrattle it is already absurd value. Alternatively, you can play turn two Nerubian Egg into this since Rogue has plenty of ways activate eggs.
Unearthed Raptor just screams value and stickiness. The question is if this -- and some of the other cards introduced in TGT -- are enough to make a tempo-style Rogue viable again since this card won’t fit in the current oil rogue.
Thanks everyone for your time and if you have any questions/comments feel free to ask and we hope to see you again for the next evaluation of a batch of cards.
Daisyx is the most prolific writer on Liquidhearth and you can follow him here:
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