Epic: 8 cards rating 10/19/16

Corpse Taker Rating

Draft Frequency: 2

Draft Power: 7

My draft frequency for this card should probably be higher, but this card doesn’t excite me much. If you have cards like Sea Titan or Kong, then this becomes a lot stronger. It can also return a champion to help you hit loyalty in a different faction for a turn. If it survives, the expend ability is also appreciated. In general, this is another copy of one of the best champions in your deck so its power depends on the power of your champions.

Dark Assassin Rating

Draft Frequency: 1

Draft Power: 6

I generally don’t draft Evil, and when I do there are other cards I would rather take. At minimum, assuming you have loyalty, it is slow targeted removal that can control a game if your opponent can’t answer it. Unfortunately, almost every card in the game, including multiple 0-cost cards, answer it.

Banishment Rating

Draft Frequency: 1

Draft Power: 3

In draft I would rather play threatening champions on my turn than removal (preferably both in 1 card like Sea Titan). Off-turn, I love targeted removal. Banishment is terrible to play off-turn. That extra card is such a big deal in draft, but so is your gold on your turn. Other people love this card and this into Ankylosaurus is better than playing a Palace Guard, but I would rather have the Palace Guard for its guaranteed ability to remove a threat and leave a threat.

Brave Squire Rating

Draft Frequency: 4

Draft Power: 6

Brave Squire is one of my favorite cards because it is so versatile. +5 and unbreakable is a great combat trick. A fast 6/1 unbreakable champion is a great chump blocker. +5 damage added to an unblocked champion is great value. Preventing a champion you Final Tasked from breaking at the end of the turn is also great. This card rarely disappoints me.

Deadly Raid Rating

Draft Frequency: 1

Draft Power: 5

In draft I would rather take a card that answers a threat or advances my board. Deadly raid can win games and it is great with a lot of tokens or big untargetable champions, but if you don’t have any of those, its effect is worthless. Further, if you use it while they still have their gold, it can be less than worthless. If you try to wait until after they spent their gold, you might not have anything to use it with. This is another card that others think is great, but unless I am low on draw effects, I will usually be happy to let it them have it.

Djinn of the Sands Rating

Draft Frequency: 6

Draft Power: 8

This is one of the best cards in the game to play while you are ahead. It is also better than average if neither player has champions in play or the board is evenly matched. If you can force your opponent to spend their gold first on your turn, this is an 8/8 airborne blitz champion which frequently equates to a Flame Strike to the face with an expended, airborne, 8/8 body in play that can potentially draw a card next turn if attacking isn’t the best play.

Otherwise, you can play it, draw a card, and then be left with an expended, airborne, 7/7 body in play that can potentially draw a card next turn if attacking isn’t the best play.

However, if you are behind on the board, it is unlikely you can draw your opponent’s gold out before playing this which makes its 8/8 airborne blitz option terrible. Its draw a card leave an expended, airborne, 7/7 body in play also won’t help you too much.

Since this is a slow card and situational, I wouldn’t take it if I was overloaded on slow and/or blitz champions already, but after playing with it, I have realized how great a card it truly is.

Fire Shaman Rating

Draft Frequency: 1

Draft Power: 2

0-cost slow 3 damage that requires a Wild 1-cost card to activate is not great. However, it is repeatable if the fragile 3/2 body lives through the start of your opponent’s next turn, unlikely. If you drafted a lot of Wild direct damage this gets better, but it is weak otherwise.

Fireball Rating

Draft Frequency: 2

Draft Power: 5

Fireball is fairly average card. It can hit a decent number of high priority targets: Muse, off-turn Juggernaut/Dark Knight, Shadow Imp, etc. It can also clear tokens if desperate. Its best use is picking off an ambush in chump blocker before it can get in front of your big, non-airborne, non-breakthrough attacking champion. It can also finish off someone.

Updates

I’m not sure how I feel about the draft frequency rating. I went through and decreased the draft frequency rating on almost all of the cards I have rated so far. I feel like the granularity isn’t there for the difference between Burrowing Wurm, Bellowing Minotaur, and Fire Shaman. We’ll see how I feel as I get through more of the cards. Will probably do some tyrants cards next time because I expect I’ll have higher draft frequencies for many of them. Scratch that, there are some super strong cards in the next batch of 8 core cards.