Not So Legendary - The Legendary Replacement Guide

Malygos

Designation: Finisher

Replace with: Archmage or Azure Drake

Reasoning: A 4 / 12 body for nine crystals that gives spell damage +5 or a 4 / 7 body for six crystals that gives spell damage +1. Alternatively, you can use the 4 / 4 for five crystals, with spell damage +1 , but also draws a card. Once again, a placeholder, but hardly a replacement.

Nozdormu

Designation: Tempo Play

Replace with: Boulderfist Ogre

Reasoning: See Boulderfist Ogre Section below.

Onyxia

Designation: Tempo Play

Replace with: Boulderfist Ogre

Reasoning: See Boulderfist Ogre Section below.

Ysera

Designation: Utility Tool

Replace with: Boulderfist Ogre

Reasoning: See Boulderfist Ogre Section below.

Deathwing

Designation: Removal Effect

Replace with: Boulderfist Ogre

Reasoning: See Boulderfist Ogre Section below.

The Boulderfist Ogre Section

Well, as you can see, a lot of the higher crystal legendaries are being simply mentioned as replaced with a Boulderfist Ogre. Why is this? Alot of these abilities are unique, strong, and paired with a large body minion. While we cannot duplicate the text of these legendaries with simpler cards, we can do our best to emulate the body. As a 6 crystal minion for a 6 / 7 body, Boulderfist Ogre can be seen as a very solid mid-game tempo play, and a potential weak finisher. Incidentally, it actually avoids destruction at the hands of a Big Game Hunter as well, which shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Another thing to consider, is to look through your cards for adequate finishers, These generally generate a large amount of damage in a single swing. All of the Epic Giants fit the bill. This way you don’t have to fill your deck with a bunch of Boulderfist Ogres. Though don’t knock him till you try him! He’s king of the Arena.

Effective Removal Placeholders

Some of the Removal Effect legendary minions are difficult to replicate at a non-legendary level, while sticking strictly to neutral minion cards. Rather than limit yourself to the replacements in the neutral category, putting in a class specific removal card instead of the weaker neutral minions would work as a solid placeholder. Plugging in an Assassinate, or Starfall, to name a few. See which cards you have available, and try to match the role of the legendary, whether it is to remove a singular large threat, or as a mass removal of a bunch of small minions that were littering the opponents battlefield.

Legendary means Legendary

I began with the idea of suggesting two neutral replacements for each of the legendary cards that are available in the game. In attempting to find a closely matched neutral card in similar function and size, I quickly discovered that these legendary minions present unduplicable game effects, especially at the higher end of the spectrum. For this reason, I felt that the inclusion of a categorization might help players to find a suitable class-specific replacement on their own.

While I am offering suggestions, it is hard to take into account the use of the card in each particular deck it has been slotted into. Would you recommend a different card choice than the one I mentioned here? Let me know if there was that perfect fit that I might have overlooked, and defend your replacement choice in the comments section below!