#5 Sylvanas Windrunner
Mana: 6
Attack: 5
Health: 5
Crafting cost: 1600
Class: Neutral
Rarity: Legendary
Deathrattle: Take control of a random enemy minion.
VS: Sylvanas is absolutely amazing when the board conditions suit her or in decks that exploit her ability fully. For the perfect example, Warlocks can use Sylvanas to attack and then sweep away a load of cheaper/midrange minions and steal the largest one by using Shadowflame. She also makes for a very warping presence on the board because your opponent is forced to play around her ability. It's worth noting that she's more resistant to silence than Cairne because her base statline is better, if only by 1 attack. Of Cairne and Sylvanas, I prefer Sylvanas, even if she is harder to get complete value from.
TC: She can be a tricky card to use correctly, but the tempo boost when her Deathrattle works and she steals a decent creature is immense. Here's my favourite Sylvanas moment: My opponent plays her. I panic. Then I calm down, use Faceless Manipulator on her, and cast Power Overwhelming on my freshly minted Sylvanas copy, which dies at the end of my turn and steals his Sylvanas. On the following turn I play my own Sylvanas which was sat in my hand the whole time. Don't ask how I still managed to lose that match.
#4 Leeroy Jenkins
Mana: 4 [Note: from 22nd September 2014, Blizzard nerfed Leeroy to cost 5 Mana.]
Attack: 6
Health: 2
Crafting cost: 1600
Class: Neutral
Rarity: Legendary
Charge. Battlecry: Summon two 1/1 Whelps for your opponent.
VS: Only fourth? I think Leeroy is not only the strongest Legendary, but the strongest card in Hearthstone full stop. The sheer amount of decks he enables, the combos he is the key piece of, and his immense effect on the metagame alone shows how powerful he is. Leeroy is often compared to Fireball, which is partly true—they both cost 4 Mana and deal 6 damage—however there are far more ways to buff Leeroy's damage than the there are to boost the power of a Fireball. If Mage had access to solid buffs, it would likely run Leeroy as well.
TC: I suspect the only reason Jenkins doesn't rank higher is because people are sick of the bastard. Rogues combo him with Shadowsteps and Cold Bloods. Warlock's use Power Overwhelmings and Faceless Manipulators. Shaman use Rockbiters and Windfuries. On and on it goes. Leeroy is almost singularly responsible for all the burst-heavy decks currently doing the rounds. As finishers go, he's unrivalled, and should be top of any player's must-craft list.
#3 Ysera
Mana: 9
Attack: 4
Health: 12
Crafting cost: 1600
Class: Neutral
Rarity: Legendary
At the end of your turn, draw a Dream Card.
VS: Now here's a card I just plain don't like. Ysera has the potential for immense value given that she draws you an additional card every turn, and all those cards are significantly stronger than their Mana cost would suggest. However, she is both incredibly slow—with no immediate impact except her card draw—and incredibly unpredictable.
When you have the opportunity to play her, and she draws you Ysera Awakens when you need to clear the board, or Nightmare when you just need a tiny bit more burst, she's amazing. At other times she draws you Laughing Sister five games in a row and you disenchant her to make a Hungry Crab out of sheer rage. There are better, more reliable Legendaries to play if you're going all the way up to 9 Mana on your curve, with Alexstrasza being the best example.
TC: For a while Ysera was being run as the 'win condition' card in all sorts of decks, probably because people overvalued her exotic card draw ability. That she's used less now is precisely for the reasons Vince outlines—too slow, too random—but while I generally don't like relying on RNG, especially in the late game, I still think she has a possible place in heavily control-focused decks. Also, goddamnit, she's just cool. Sometimes it's okay to run a card just because you enjoy it, right? I mean, she dreams and the world trembles. Who doesn't get a little kick out of that?
#2 Cairne Bloodhoof
Mana: 6
Attack: 4
Health: 5
Crafting cost: 1600
Class: Neutral
Rarity: Legendary
Deathrattle: Summon a 4/5 Baine Bloodhoof.
VS: Cairne is the essence of value. If his Deathrattle is triggered, he provides a total of 8/10 in stats for a cost of 6 Mana. 8/10 worth of stats is, roughly speaking 9 Mana's worth. If he doesn't get silenced or removed, he can really alter the flow of the game—and that's without accounting for synergies with cards like Ancestral Spirit and Shadowflame.
There's not really all that much to say about Cairne—he's ol' reliable. Personally, I've cut him from a lot of them in favor of cards like The Black Knight (which I'm amazed more people didn't vote for) and Big Game Hunter because they generate more value in the current metagame, but I'm sure that with the upcoming Naxxramas expansion we'll get even more clever ways of milking this card for value.
TC: Just a rock solid six-drop. The acid test with most cards is how often are you happy to have them in your hand. I rarely feel uncomfortable with a Cairne sat there, because you know there'll come a point when you'll want to play this beefy, sticky creature. Huh. Anyone else hungry?
#1 Ragnaros the Firelord
Mana: 8
Attack: 8
Health: 8
Crafting cost: 1600
Class: Neutral
Rarity: Legendary
Can't Attack. At the end of your turn, deal 8 damage to a random enemy.
VS: Ragnaros, Ragnaros, Ragnaros. Creator of both epic wins and spectacular fails. Rag is similar to Ysera in some ways, but he's also cheaper and has less of an obvious drawback. Yes, his ability is unpredictable, but the percentages can be manipulated by removing minions you don't want to hit from the board, and unlike Ysera he's not slow.
Rag provides you with inevitability in the sense that, if not dealt with, he can utterly close down the board. Unfortunately, with 8 attack he does fall into Big Game Hunter's range, which is usually the way he's dispatched. Unless you run Baron Geddon to draw out the Big Game Hunter, it's very likely that your first high-attack minion will be Rag himself.
In decks which do run huge, early threats like Handlock, he's also not that spectacular since you can't really afford to use 8 Mana to just plop down a threat, while if you are looking for win conditions or inevitability, Jarraxxus and the Leeroy-Power Overwhelming-Faceless Manipulator combo are better options. Granted, I have an aversion to unpredictability so I may not value Ragnaros as highly as someone who does have great luck with the card.
TC: No surprise at all with this choice, and let the record state that Rag absolutely romped the vote. Because he hits something for 8 damage on the turn you play him, it's impossible to get no value from him. And it's not like using Silence on him is a great answer either, because you've now created an 8/8 creature who can attack freely. I woldun't say Rag is OP though, but, Leeroy aside, he's definitely the easiest finisher to use. Plus he often ends up being good comedy value, as evidenced by this incredible piece of RNG captured by poor old Kripp...
Now check out the worst 10 Legendary cards, as voted by you, or our list of the best 46 cards in the game full stop.
