Every Hearthstone expansion has objectively good cards, and subjectively bad ones. Why is that so? Because some players like to play gimmicky cards that have some unusual effects just for fun. But if you worry about your performance on ladder, and wish to avoid cards that will not provide a serious competition to the rest of the set, then consider these 13 cards from Journey to Un’Goro as objectively bad.
Most important thing to know is the difference of what makes a card good or bad. If you’re a seasoned player, then this selection will include obvious choices, but if you’re just starting out in Hearthstone, then carefully read what makes specifically these cards the worst in the set.
Of course, it doesn’t touch the aspect of Arena, because that is a dimension of its own, and cards that are bad on ladder can be more than effective on Arena. But you shouldn’t worry about that, and just consider the competitive side of the game for now.
Razorpetal Volley
Nobody knows what Rogue did to Blizzard for it to consistently give this class some absolutely horrid cards one expansion after the other. This spell, for example, adds two smaller spells to your hand, but other than that it does absolutely nothing for the cost of 2 mana.
One could say that this is a great synergy with Gadgetzan Auctioneer -- but it’s not, because Rogue already has enough cards to cycle with. It really doesn’t need more useless spells to concede with.
Eggnapper
This would be a fine card if it had at least 2 HP, but with only 1 it does absolutely nothing, and you simply play two 1/1s for 3 mana -- that is not efficient at all.
Hunter has similarly designed cards, such as Infested Wolf that has the same effect, except it’s got enough health to actually be useful. So there is really no reason to play this card or have it in a game whatsoever.
Pterrordax Hatchling
The art on this card is very cute, but the stats are not - it’s too expensive. There are so many great Adapt minions in the Journey to Un’Goro that there is simply no place for Pterrordax in any of your decks.
It’s probably fine on Arena, especially if you can get a “+3 Health” effect, but even then it’s not guaranteed. Generally speaking, every other card with similar effects is better than the Hatchling, such as Druid of the Flame, Silent Knight, Giant Wasp, etc.
Ultrasaur
This is the only vanilla minion (no effects) in the entire Un’Goro set, and even with its humongous stats, the card is completely redundant. Hearthstone has become so reliant on all sorts of immediate effects, such as Charge, Battlecry, trigger mechanics that the simple minion will never be appealing in this sort of environment.
Yes, you could play it in your new Quest Druid deck that can make all your minions cost 0, but why would you still play this instead of any other big minion with an actual effect.
Feeding Time
We all remember the infamous Imp-losion spell that was an RNG nightmare for many players. Well, Feeding Time is something similar, but without the RNG. Does this mean that the card is good? No, unfortunately, that is not the case.
The reason is that it is too expensive. You simply don’t want to play a spell that deals only 3 damage, although guaranteed, on turn five, which is when players start to bring out some heftier minions. If this spell cost 3 mana, then it would be one of the best cards in the set, but Blizzard decided otherwise.
Frozen Crusher
The only deck where this minion would work is the Purify Priest. But how many of them have you seen on the ladder recently? Exactly, nobody plays Purify decks, because they are ineffective. This means that the card will most likely not find its place in the game.
Playing this on Arena is not too great either. Yes, it’s huge and can kill almost any other minion, but the freeze delay each turn is such a nuisance that most likely it’ll work against you rather than help you win the match.
Vinecleaver
Whoa! Blizzard devs clearly lost any sense of what a weapon should cost in this case. Another weapon in the game that costs 7 mana is Gorehowl, and it’s worth every mana crystal you pay for it. But this is just ridiculous, and even the summoned Recruits cannot compensate for such an expensive card.
It’s slow and clunky and no one would ever consider to play this in constructed.
Explore Un’Goro
If you like to lose -- play Explore Un’Goro. Warlock has a similar card - Renounce Darkness - that turns all your cards into random ones, but with a huge advantage -- every card is reduced in cost by 1 mana. That is the only reason why Renounce decks have any chance on the ladder.
If your goal is just to have fun without worrying what rank you are on, then surely this will be a cool card to play.
Tortollan Primalist
This is Yogg Sarron and Mayor Noggenfogger of the Journey to Un’Goro. Even if it gave you a full control over the spell you cast, it would still be terribly overpriced. But with the additional RNG effect it makes it not only expensive, but also completely unplayable.
There are only a few spells in Hearthstone that you would want to cast using Tortollan Primalist, such as Pyroblast or Mind Control, but the chance of getting those two spells every time is virtually non-existent.
The Caverns Below
Most classes have received some amazing Quests in the new expansion, but as usually, Rogue was left out with this nonsense of a card. First of all, there is some confusion on how to actually effectively accomplish this Quest. It is almost a guarantee that players will find it hard to play minions with the same name in succession.
Secondly, the effect of the Crystal Core spell is really questionable. Turning your minions into 5/5s is not really such a big deal, if you compare it to other Quests. And lastly, it doesn’t synergize with the Jades mechanic. So overall, this is a very poor Quest.
The Last Kaleidosaur
Here is the main problem with this quest -- the 5 times that the Galvadon adapts are simply unnecessary. If there were more than 10 Adapt options in the game, then maybe it would make sense, but if you adapt 2 or 3 times, then the 4th and 5th times you will most likely get the same effects.
It doesn’t sound that exciting, especially when you don’t get the exact Adapt effects that you need, so you are forced to choose the ones you don’t need. It’s really just a bad design, which with a little bit of more thought could be improved.
Sherazin, Corpse Flower
The awful-Rogue-cards-train keeps rolling with Sherazin. On paper this sounds good: you play four cards and this minion resurrects itself. But the low HP makes it very easy to kill that as a result just clogs your board with a dormant minion.
And then, it’s also weak to spells like Polymorph and Hex, any other card with Silence effect, and of course, Devolve. All in all, it’s a very weak legendary that will find place only in gimmicky decks.
Hemet, Jungle Hunter
This may not be the worst card in the set, but it’s definitely the weirdest one. The stats on it are nothing special, just a vanilla 6/6 for 6 mana, but the effect is something that nobody would expect to see in Hearthstone.
The only reason you would want this in your deck is if you play lots of small minions and you don’t want to draw them in the late game in order to stay consistent with the help of your bigger minions. In this case Hemet does the job.
However, it’s really hard to imagine such a scenario on a constructed ladder.
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What other Hearthstone cards from Journey to Un’Goro would you like to be included in this list? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Published: Apr 5, 2017 07:21 am