You probably know the feeling. The rush of elation as you open a pack of cards, tap one and it erupts in an orange firework accompanied by the innkeeper shouting 'Legendary!', immediately followed by the crushing disappoint as it spins around to reveal… Well, one of these. Last week we brought you the 10 most valuable Legendaries in Hearthstone, as picked by the PC Gamer readers. This week, we present the least wanted Legendary additions to your deck. Once again, here to analyse your choices are legendary-ranked player Vincent Sarius (VS), with additional thoughts from our own, and slightly less legendary-ranked, Tim Clark (TC).
Before we get on with the show, one piece of advice. Even if you do land one of these ne'er do wells, don't disenchant the card. You never know how the metagame might change. It only takes an innovative decksmith to come along and your previously-considered useless Legendary could find itself becoming flavour of the month. Plus, there's always a chance Blizzard will tweak the really crappy ones—at which point you'll be able to get full 1600 dust value from them. The exception here is gold versions. Snag one of those and it's usually worth disenchanting so you can craft something you've had your eye on. Just not one of these…
#10 Al'Akir the Windlord
Mana: 8
Attack: 3
Health: 5
Crafting cost: 1600
Class: Shaman
Rarity: Legendary
Windfury, Charge, Divine Shield, Taunt
VS: For a long time this card was regarded as one of, if not the, worst of the class-based Legendaries. It's easy to see why: He's Leeroy, but for double the cost and some additional durability. Who cares about durability, right? Answer: everyone should. Windfury and Divine Shield means Al'Akir is a bit more flexible than Leeroy—he can clear two minions or go for lethal, and he scales incredibly well with Rockbiter Weapons and Flametongue Totems. So, he's rarely a completely dead card, but he is a bit low impact unless you can combo him with something to increase his damage potential. Trivia: The original version of Al'Akir had 3/3 stats, which was indisputably awful, while a later version had 3/7 and was totally OP. Like the wind, he's always changing.
TC: Oh man, this is harsh. I know the card has been dubbed Al'Akir the Shitlord in some quarters (well, Reddit ), but I thought we were over name-calling. I'm running two Shaman decks right now, and he's a mainstay finisher in both of them. Interestingly, Hearthstone senior designer Ben Brode says that after hearing all the smack talk about him, Blizzard checked Al'Akir's numbers and the card actually has one of the highest win percentages of any Legendary. But yeah, he's a little situational in so far as you really do want to have a Rockbiter Weapon or a Flametongue Totem to run with him. Or both. Maybe people just don't like his shrieky voice. “LIKE SWATTING INSECTS!” Ugh. Just kill them quietly, Al.
#9 Malygos
Mana: 9
Attack: 4
Health: 12
Crafting cost: 1600
Class: Neutral
Rarity: Legendary
Spell Damage +5
VS: This is another Legendary that I positively adore. For something that has such a simple ability (there's nothing particularly innovative about bonus spell damage), you'd be amazed at the effect Malygos can have on deckbuilding. Who doesn't like turning 1 or even 0 Mana cards into the equivalent of 5, 6, 7 Mana nukes. There's just something exceptionally hilarious in dropping Malygos and then double Innervating a Swipe into two Moonfires for a combined 25 damage to your opponent's face. Nonetheless, Malygos really does need to be very carefully built around, and casually throwing him into a deck will likely lead to disappointment.
TC: There was a cool twist on Miracle Rogue doing the rounds, which used Malygos to deliver late-game spell brutality—the idea being that it was a bit more consistent than the Leeroy combo version—but it didn't really seem to take off. I still think there must be some potentially amazing Mage and Druid decks too, but rarely encounter any. I guess the issue is that the card is too slow. For 9 Mana, you're going to have to wait a turn before going all 'Spells Gone Wild', and in that time your opponent gets a free shot at using any remaining hard removal. Still, another harsh choice. Why didn'y you vote for The Beast ? He's terrible .
#8 Hogger
Mana: 6
Attack: 4
Health: 4
Crafting cost: 1600
Class: Neutral
Rarity: Legendary
At the end of your turn, summon a 2/2 Gnoll with Taunt.
VS: While Hogger has seen some play lately in the Bloodlust Shaman deck created by Gaara of Tempo Storm, I still feel he's a weak card. The 6 Mana slot has a lot of very good cards, like Cairne , Sylvanas , Fire Elemental , etc. Hogger meanwhile is just extremely easy to remove by 6 Mana, even a 1 or 2 health adjustment would do a lot to push the card up in value.
TC: Nope. I can't stand the 'Token' style, which relies on using creatures which spam additional cheap creatures, and even in that sort of deck Hogger isn't especially potent. 6 Mana for a weaker Yeti and a 2/2 with Taunt? No ta.
#7 Captain Greenskin
Mana: 5
Attack: 5
Health: 4
Crafting cost: 1600
Class: Neutral
Rarity: Legendary
Battlecry: Give your weapon +1/+1.
VS: In certain decks I think Greenskin could find some use—particularly Paladin, where you can potentially follow up a turn 4 Truesilver Champion with a turn 5 Greenskin to build-your-own Arcanite Reaper—but overall it's still pretty low impact. Maybe when Blizzard takes a better look at the suite of Pirate minions Greenskin will be better, but until then he just doesn't seem that useful.
TC: Too situational for me, as with a lot of the Pirate cards. You're reliant on having a weapon at exactly the right time in order to extract the full value. That said, Total Biscuit recently came up with an intersting weapons-heavy Warrior deck, called Master At Arms – Lord Of The Gimmicks , which seemed fun. And Reynad , creator of the hated/beloved Zoolock deck, has also been working on a midrange Paladin deck that uses Greenskin. So people are still trying to find innovative ways to use the card. I just won't be holding my breath.
Next page: The top five Legendary stinkers
