7 Underrated Hearthstone Cards
Author: Nayn
Hello! As you probably know, this July Blizzard released the Curse of Naxxramas, the first ever card expansion set for Hearthstone. Adding a total of 30 new collectible cards, it brought the total number of cards you can collect to 412. While this is nothing compared to the thousands of cards in Magic: The Gathering, it is still quite an impressive number for such a new game.
With so many cards to choose from, there are many very valuable cards that often get overlooked or misjudged. As we are just beginning Season 7, in this article, I will give my list of the top 7 neutral cards that I think are the most underrated in Hearthstone. I feel that these cards are excellent substitutes for other cards in the Expert Set that you do not own, and they are even good on their own. If you have any underrated cards of your own or disagree with mine, feel free to give your opinion in the comments.
Please note that these cards are not ranked in any particular order.
1) Ironbeak Owl
Ironbeak Owl has always been frowned upon as a worse version of Spellbreaker. For control decks, it is true that Spellbreaker may be a better pick due to the Ironbeak Owl’s tendency to be picked off easily. However, many people do not realize its capacity in aggro decks. It is one of the single best cards to push for damage and often enable lethal that turn. When your opponent throws down a Sludge Belcher, which has become a staple card in the current meta, silencing it with your Ironbeak Owl not only removes the deathrattle, but also allows you to get in 7 or more damage on the enemy’s face. Also, as an added bonus, it is a beast, which among other things enables Kill Command to do 2 extra damage for a Hunter.
2) Dark Iron Dwarf
Dark Iron Dwarf has always been valued highly in Arena and Warlock Zoo, but lacks a spot that I think it deserves in many Midrange decks, especially those whose game plan revolve around Tokens, which are minions that are not played from the hand but rather summoned by a spell or another minion (think of the 1/1 Violet Apprentice spawned by Violet Teacher, or the 4/4 Nerubian spawned by Nerubian Egg). The Dark Iron Dwarf provides a solid 4/4 body, while allowing a Token or smaller minion to trade up. Also, against this Handlock meta where many decks are running Big Game Hunter, the Dark Iron Dwarf can raise a 5 or 6 attack minion into Big Game Hunter range against decks that do not run huge minions (such as Doomguard in Warlock Zoo).
Abomination is a card that people have long been hesitant to put in their decks. However, I think it is an incredible pick in an aggro-dominated meta, with its only real weakness being its high cost. However, it provides a solid 4/4 body that must be pushed through, only to reward the aggro player with what is essentially a Consecration to their board. You can almost think of Abomination as “the Sylvanas Windrunner for aggro”. Just like Sylvanas Windrunner when playing against a control deck, Abomination usually forces the opponent to make inefficient trades. However, whereas Sylvanas Windrunner can steal a large, important minion against control decks, Abomination can completely wipe out the board against aggro.
Frost Elemental is another card that is relatively easy to spot in Arena, but lacks a place in the Constructed meta. I think it is an extremely powerful card that can provide a huge tempo swing. For 1/1 less attack/health than the “normal” statline of a 6-cost minion, it allows you to effectively neutralize many threats for a turn. You can prevent lethal by freezing a minion with high attack, such as Mountain Giant, and you can also protect your own valuable minions, from Knife Juggler to Ysera, by preventing your enemy’s board from trading into it. You can even prevent classes with weapons from using them for a turn, so you can stop a warrior from clearing your Chillwind Yeti and your two Spectral Spiders with his last swing of Death’s Bite. As they say, games are often decided in one turn, and Frost Elemental can give you the turn you need.
Amani Berserker has fallen out of favor, but it used to be the go-to anti-AOE card for aggro decks. I think it is a very strong card that can trade both down and up well. It can pick off a smaller minion to trigger its enrage, and in the worst case scenario it can just trade evenly with another 2 mana minion. It can get a lot of value in decks that have efficient ways to enrage it; Mage has a built-in enrage in its hero power, and the Berserker is a good target for Wrath, cycling the card and then allowing your Amani Berserker to trade for a Chillwind Yeti or Sen’jin Shieldmasta. Also, when played on curve, it can force Paladins (and to a lesser extent Shamans) to not use their hero power for the first few turns.
We’re all familiar with Boulderfist Ogre. He was the good old reliable late game card when we were just starting out in Hearthstone, struggling to beat the Innkeeper on Expert Mode. And eventually, we dropped him, because he was boring. Yes, Boulderfist Ogre is just a vanilla card. But he is the most reliable 6 drop of them all. Cairne Bloodhoof and Sylvanas Windrunner are two of the most popular 6 drops, both shiny legendaries. But neither is as consistent as the Boulderfist Ogre, especially in this new Deathrattle meta, where Silence is not the exception but the rule (Even control priests are running one Silence, which formerly was considered a bad card). If Cairne Bloodhoof is silenced, he is a 4/5 for 6 mana: in other words, terrible. Even when he is not silenced, both halves of him trade with the Boulderfist Ogre, who provides more pressure with his 6 attack (which notably dodges Big Game Hunter) to Cairne Bloodhoof’s 4 attack. Sylvanas Windrunner does not even need to be silenced to get no value from her deathrattle. So while Boulderfist Ogre may not have the craziest potential, it is a consistent 6/7 that I think people have ignored a bit too readily.
Contrary to what some might think, I consider Onyxia the best sole card you could possibly draw in late-game topdecking wars. For starters, unless you have a very big board (which is very unlikely when both sides are topdecking), Onyxia provides the highest stats of any minion. She grants 14/14 worth of stats, with +1/+1 less for each minion on your board. Just as an expensive late-game legendary should, she ends a long game very quickly. Unfortunately, what she cannot do is turn a lost game around like Alexstrasza and Grommash Hellscream. Many people argue that any board wipe turns Onxyia into a 9 mana 8/8. However, these people are disregarding the use of the board wipe itself. Board clears are supposed to create card and tempo advantage, using only one card and some amount of mana to destroy several of your opponent’s cards, whose combined cost was likely far more than that of the AOE spell. When a board wipe is used on Onyxia (and remember that most board wipes are gone by late-game), it has traded 0 for 1 (since none of the Whelps are cards) and has only destroyed about 1.5 mana worth of tempo (using Ironbark Protector as a reference card). Furthermore, it still leaves a big threat on the board in the form of Onyxia herself. So in super-late game decks like Paladin and Warrior, perhaps Onxyia deserves a bit more consideration than she gets.
So that is my list of what I think are the 7 most underrated neutral cards in Hearthstone. Remember, I am not saying that these are the best cards in the game, or that you should drop all your core cards to include them in your decks. But if you feel like you have a vacant slot, or you can’t afford all of the cards for a deck you’re trying to make, maybe you should look back at some of the cards that you previously ignored. They could be a lot better than you expected.
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