Hearthstone Legendaries You Can “Safely” Disenchant – Ashes of Outland – May 2020

With a flash of orange and a shout from the Innkeeper, opening a Legendary card in a Hearthstone pack is certainly exciting. Unfortunately, a lot of Legendary cards are not competitively viable. In many cases, you’d get more mileage out of the 400 dust than the card itself. This guide provides a list of “Safe” to Disenchant cards for the current Standard meta. Used in conjunction with our Legendary Crafting Guide, you’ll be able to make the most of your resources in Hearthstone.

Before you dust any cards, make sure this list has been updated for the current meta!

Should I Dust My Wild Cards?

First and most importantly, this list shows cards that are currently bad/useless in the STANDARD format. Some of those cards might actually be good and see more common play in Wild, so if you’re playing the other format, do your research carefully before dusting anything.

Since the inception of the Wild format, Hearthstone players have been left with the difficult decision of whether to disenchant cards that rotate into Wild. While there is a smaller player base and less competitive play than Standard, Wild offers a lot of unique synergies with nostalgic cards.

The questions you must ask yourself in determining what to do with your Wild-specific collection are “How much value does the dust have to me now?” and “What is the likelihood I become interested in the format down the road?”. No one but you can decide what the “best” choice is in this case.

Since Wild is an eternal format, outside of some fringe cases, you can NEVER predict whether a certain Legendary won’t become playable in the future. Maybe it will happen next expansion, maybe next year, or maybe 10 years from now. If you’re playing Wild format a lot, the safest approach is to never disenchant anything. If you’re playing Wild a little, or you think that you might get into the format in the future, disenchanting and you’re short on Dust, disenchanting only Golden cards or (currently) bad Legendaries might be an option. And finally, if you’re absolutely sure that you will never touch the format (and you don’t mind being handicapped in some of the Tavern Brawls), you can consider getting rid of every Wild card. It’s not something I recommend, though!

Legendary Duplicate Protection

A full duplicate protection was implemented in Ashes of Outland expansion, and it’s GREAT for players who like to Dust their bad cards for one simple reason. Dusted cards are still counted as owned for the sake of protection.

It means that if you disenchant a Legendary card, you WON’T open it again from the packs until you have every single Legendary from that set (at this point, you will open them at random again). Which means that you can freely disenchant a poor Legendary (or any other card rarity for that matter) and you don’t have to worry about opening them in your packs again.

Which Sets Should You Disenchant From

Disenchanting Legendary cards is inherently risky. You’re gaining 400 dust for a card that costs 1,600 dust. This results in a net loss of 1,200 dust should you decide to craft a previously disenchanted Legendary down the line. While no one can predict how much support a particular card will get in future sets, by considering the set of the card in question you can mitigate some of the risks.

With this in mind, it is recommended that you’re more conservative with your decision to disenchant Legendary cards from the current year and, more specifically, the most recent set. Soon after an expansion release, Arcane dust becomes precious as players look to craft new decks. However, the meta takes time to settle and what may seem like a safe disenchant two weeks after release may be a sleeper card that is found to be quite potent later in the set’s life. It’s better to Dust from the sets that have been in Standard for a longer time – because of that, we had enough time to see the synergies Blizzard is pushing, as well as whether the card is even good in the first place.

The safest cards to disenchant are bad cards from Classic set, since we had all the time in the world to determine that they’re bad. Cards like Gruul or Nat Pagle have never seen competitive play, and so are cards that you can safely get rid of without worrying that they will be playable in the future. However, I would not touch the Classic cards that are more meta-dependent, such as Archmage Antonidas or Tirion Fordring. Even if they aren’t played at a given moment, they might be waiting for the right deck – those cards get it and out of meta every now and then, so dusting one would be pretty risky.

Disclaimer

Finally, it’s worth restating that no one can accurately predict the long-term viability of Legendary cards. In the past, we’ve seen Legendary cards go from unplayable to great with just a little support. This guide uses the information we have available to us now to make educated recommendations for disenchanting cards. We’re not psychics, we don’t know what new cards will be released or what the future metas will look like. Blizzard has also set a precedent in Rise of Shadows by buffing some weak cards, and a bunch of them started seeing play. This MIGHT happen to one of the cards on this list. So in the end, it’s the responsibility of the player to decide to dust or keep any of the cards listed.

All of the cards in this list are currently played in less than 0.5% of decks (and majority of them have win rate significantly lower than 50%), according to data from HSReplay.net.

“Safe” to Disenchant Legendary Cards

Hearthstone Legendary Disenchanting Guide Table of Contents

“Safe” to Disenchant Legendaries from the Classic Set

The Hearthstone Classic Set is the core set in the game. Introduced with the game’s release, the set still has many of the game’s strongest Legendary cards. Due to their unrestricted duration in the Standard format, Classic Set Legendary cards are more likely to remain playable than those released with expansions so some additional restraint can be exhibited when disenchanting Classic Set cards. That’s why we’ve only picked the cards that were never competitively good (not including the early days of Hearthstone, where the game looked much differently).

Gruul – On paper, Gruul seems like a single card powerhouse – growing in strength every turn. However, when you invest eight mana into a single minion, you want more of an immediate effect than this card provides. While Gruul will be a great card in most of the Basic decks, he’s largely a victim of other, more powerful options being available to more advanced players.

Hogger – Even though the “infinite value” of summoning a new Taunt every turn is tempting, in reality he rarely survives past the first turn, making him not much better than an overpriced Silver Hand Knight. The 4/4 body is just too easy to deal with in the late game, even through a 2/2 Taunt.

High Inquisitor Whitemane – A new addition to the Classic set, introduced to replace a Legendary, which rotated out to Hall of Fame. While the card’s effect seems pretty powerful, it’s incredibly hard use. Since she only revives minions which died THIS TURN, in order to utilize her effect, you need to already have some minions on the board and your opponent needs to have minions you can trade into. This is not a very likely scenario, especially not in a slower deck that can afford to keep it for a long time. On the other hand, if you play a Midrange build,  you don’t really want to hold onto a dead card for many turns. Whitemane is considerably weaker than let’s say Kel'Thuzad, which has only seen limited play even though the overall power level was lower at the time.

Xavius – Xavius (previously Illidan) is, unfortunately, not a very strong minion. The weak stat line of both the Flame of Azzinoths and Illidan himself means that they’re too easily removed by opponents to be a viable threat. Plus it’s pretty difficult to drop him and summon a lot of 2/1’s on the same turn, which means that most of the time you will be left with no value.

Lorewalker Cho – While he’s a top-performer in the meme meta, Lorewalker Cho is infrequently a card you want to play in your deck. Even in a minion-heavy deck where the downside is unlikely to affect you, a 0/4 body doesn’t offer much.

Millhouse Manastorm – Everyone’s (least?) favorite gnome provides a great body for two mana, but the drawback is far too punishing for Millhouse to see competitive play. Nearly every deck in the meta runs some spells, and making them free would completely negate any tempo advantage you’re gaining from extra stats on your 2-drop. While he was sometimes played in decks running Call to Arms (just for the body, to avoid his Battlecry), it was still more of a meme than an actually smart strategy – all kinds of stats indicated that Paladin decks were better without him.

Nat Pagle – Nat Pagle is a prime example of why micro-changes are very difficult in Hearthstone. Before a small change back in Classic, Pagle was present in nearly every single Hearthstone deck. As soon as his text was changed from “At the end of your turn,” to “At the start of your turn,” the jolly fisherman immediately disappeared and never came back. To be honest, I don’t think that it would be good right now even in the pre-nerf version – the games much slower back then and the overall power value was much lower. But right now, Pagle is one of the worst (if not THE worst) Legends from the Classic set.

Nozdormu – The concept of punishing slow-playing opponents is certainly tempting, but it comes at too much of a cost with Nozdormu. On turn nine, you really want to get more stats in play than this dragon provides. Quick-thinking Hearthstone players would be better served holding out for a speed game mode than holding on to Nozdormu. Sure, if you play it right before your opponent’s complicated combo turn, you might be able to disrupt it (or even win the game if they still decide to go for it and fail mid-way). But majority of time it will just be a 9 mana 8/8.

The Beast – Paying six mana for a 9/7 doesn’t sound all that bad. While I don’t think it would be playable anyway, it would certainly be more tempting. Giving your opponent a free minion, however, is usually not a good idea. In addition to the drawback of the Deathrattle, the somewhat fragile nature of The Beast makes it easily managed by opponents. If they use a single card to remove it, not only they traded them 1 for 1, but they also got a 3/3 for their trouble.

Year of the Dragon (2019 Sets)

The Year of the Dragon consists of Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum and Descent of Dragons. All three sets will rotate out of the Standard format with the release of the first expansion in 2021 (most likely around April 2021).

“Safe” to Disenchant Legendaries from the Rise of Shadows

Oblivitron – Oblivitron had its moment in a slower Mech Hunter build with Mechanical Whelp. However, after the rotation, the card is completely useless. Not only all of the key Mechs have rotated out with Boomdsay Project, Hunter hasn’t got enough Deathrattle synergies to make Obvlivitron work. And Oblivitron needs both. The best thing it can summon right now is Safeguard, but since its Deathrattle is rather weak (only summon a 0/5), the combo is not strong. Since we had a lot of Mechs in Standard for almost two years, I don’t think that Blizzard will go for another big Mech expansion right away, so I don’t see Oblivitron being playable.

Tak Nozwhisker – Normally, shuffling cards into your deck is a really slow play. Since you don’t get anything immediately and you have to draw those cards in order to get value, decks that rely on shuffling lots of stuff often just don’t work. You can drop a minion, play Togwaggle's Scheme, shuffle 5 of them into your deck, but then what? You don’t get them right away, you still need to draw them. But it’s not as simple. First of all – Tak is useless by itself, unlike lots of other Legendaries that are also solid standalone, without synergies. Then, those combos are expensive – Tak alone costs 7, which is A LOT in Rogue. Rogue is a class with limited defensive tools, no healing, no Armor gain, so it doesn’t want to rely on slow combos like that to get more value. Then, decks that want to shuffle lots of stuff into the deck are already pretty clunky and frankly, Tak is just another clunky piece for “the dream” turn, which doesn’t happen most of the time. Even at the time when Pogo-Hopper was in Standard, the card has seen zero play. Right now with Galakrond dominating, Rogue has enough late game value generation that it doesn’t need those fancy shuffle combos at all and I don’t really see that changing any time soon.

The Boom Reaver – The Boom Reaver was a cool card to get from Dr. Boom’s Hero Power, but it was never really a good standalone card. The only way to seriously play it is with only big minions in the deck, because a 10 mana 7/9 that summons something small and gives it Rush is just bad. And the Big Warrior strategy just doesn’t work. What’s even worse is that without Dr. Boom’s passive effect, the 7/9 body has no Rush, which means that the card is INCREDIBLY slow and unless you build a whole, bad deck around it, it doesn’t even give you lots of value. It makes no sense to run it, and unless they print Big Warrior synergies for 2 expansions in a row, it will remain that way.

Lucentbark – Heal Druid has been attempted multiple times, but it has just never worked. There are so many things that make it hard to play. You really so hard on Lucentbark combos to even do anything, so not drawing it is bad. Then you need to take damage before you can heal yourself, . Then a single Plague of Death or The Amazing Reno can ruin your game.

Nozari – In theory, it’s not a bad card. If you play Control Paladin, you rarely care about your opponent’s health, so healing you up to full is amazing. If you survive that long against Aggro, it pretty much wins you the game on the spot. The 4/12 body is big enough to get some nice trades and be tricky to kill. And it’s also a Dragon – and Paladin has some Dragon synergies, so throughout the game it can use Nozari as an activator and then drop it in the late game for its effect. The thing is, though, that neither Control Paladin, nor Dragon Paladin are viable right now. Control version just doesn’t have enough value tools to compete with other slow builds or enough removals to work well against Aggro. Dragon version, on the other hand, doesn’t have enough strong synergies to work. Both of those are just too fair. The card hasn’t worked ever since its release and it doesn’t work right now.

Commander Rhyssa – I was on the fence about this card, but decided to put it on the list. There was only a single time in the history when Secret Paladin has seen play, and it was during Mysterious Challenger era, only because of how absolutely broken the card was. After that, even though Paladin was getting Secret synrgies here and there, it just wasn’t enough. Last Standard year, there were some attempts to run Secret Paladin, but it was always an off-meta deck. The best we had were a few Secret synergies in Highlander Paladin, and even that wasn’t very popular. And now with Bellringer Sentry, Hidden Wisdom and Autodefense Matrix out of Standard, it makes even less sense to play any kind of Secret Paladin. They would need to print some really insane Secret synergies soon in order for Commander Rhyssa to see play (because the card itself is pretty cool in a deck full of Secrets).

“Safe” to Disenchant Legendaries from the Saviors of Uldum

Elise the Enlightened – Out of the Highlander synergy cards, Elise is most likely the worst one. Even though it has seen SOME play, it was never in an actual Highlander deck, but a regular deck using it for some sort of late game combo or just more value. However, it hasn’t seen play even in that way in a while already. Malygos Druid no longer makes sense with no ways to cheat it out, and Quest Druid has better finishers like Zephrys the Great or Ysera, Unleashed. I also can’t see a full Highlander Druid deck really working out.

Colossus of the Moon – The thing about Colossus of the Moon is that it’s really and I mean REALLY powerful once it hits the board. The problem is that playing it naturally is usually not an option – at 10 mana and with no immediate effect, it’s one of the slowest cards in the entire game. Some decks have attempted to play it, but they ran tools that could cheat it out on the board (such as Eureka! or Duel!). Even then, they were mostly off-meta / meme decks. Right now there are no good ways to cheat it out, and since we’ve already established that playing it from hand is not an option, the card is just… pretty useless. I believe that if we got some great way to cheat it out, it might be playable again, but we obviously can’t predict the future. Right now it doesn’t look like it would work.

Bazaar Burglary – I had some hopes for this Quest last year, and it even has seen some play right after the release, but then players have quickly realized that it’s not the best. First of all – you need to put a bunch of mediocre cards into your deck (because cards that give you random cards from other classes are pretty mediocre). Then, how quickly you finish it heavily relies on your draw RNG – you can finish it on Turn 3 (2x Clever Disguise) or not be able to get it done until Turn 6-7, and the latter is just terrible. Blink Fox, which was a staple in the build, has rotated out, and so did Tess Greymane. And finally, it just doesn’t make any sense to run it over Galakrond Rogue. If you want to goof around, you can definitely play it, I know that some Rogue players really like “Thief” mechanics, but it’s just not great.

Raid the Sky Temple – The card has been on this list ever since its release, and while it HAS seen some play this expansion, I’m still sticking with it. Some players have tried it out in Spell Mage builds, but the truth is that playing it actually reduces your win rate. Even in a deck full of spells, it takes a while to finish it, and getting more completely random spells is just… not consistent enough. Yes, you always get some extra value, but you rarely get what you need at the time. And value is not exactly what the deck needs – it needs some ways to close out the games. Sure, you might get some burn, or ways to summon minions, but you might get more card draw, some random Secret etc. that won’t really get you anywhere. Then, you can also try it out in a regular, not a full-Spell deck, but then you will have an even harder time finishing the Quest, and honestly at this point why aren’t you just playing Highlander Mage? It’s just doing everything better.

Making Mummies – I don’t like putting cards that have seen a bunc hf oplay on this list, but I feel like Making Mummies has already shown everything it could. The main problem here is that while there are still enough ways to complete the Quest (since Reborn minions haven’t rotated out yet), there is no pay-off. And I really mean it. Before, two best targets to copy were Mechano-Egg and Mechanical Whelp – both of them are gone. Most of the Mech synergies like Annoy-o-Module or Zilliax, which made the copies even more annoying and the deck powerful in general are also gone. You COULD copy Reborn minions, and it’s not the worst thing ever, but it’s not very good either. Before rotation, it was just a filler in case you didn’t have anything better, but if you got to this point you usually was in a pretty rough spot. The “finisher” of Kangor's Endless Army is also gone. Like half of the deck rotated out, and they would really need to print A LOT of strong cards that fit exactly into this build in order for it to see play again.

“Safe” to Disenchant Legendaries from Descent of Dragons

Nozdormu the Timeless – At first, players have though that the extra Mana Crystals are full. If that was the case, Nozdormu would be broken as heck – you get a 4 mana 8/8 and then can still use the rest of your mana immediately. But, of course, it turned out that it doesn’t work like that and the Mana Crystals are empty. Which means that while yes, you do get a 4 mana 8/8, your opponent can use their full 10 mana crystals first. Depending on the deck, it might be a solid card to drop on curve. Even in this case, the card is… not terrible I guess? There are some uses for it. If you play a Control deck, vs Aggro getting to 10 mana is an advantage, since you have more powerful late game plays. And against slower decks, it’s ultimately a 4 mana 8/8, so a pretty big threat. However, no Paladin deck wanted to play it for now, and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon. Dragon Paladin builds just don’t work, same thing goes for Control Paladin. And even if it did, there’s always some risk involved in dropping this card, since you give your opponent a lot of mana to react.

Waxadred – I thought that this card is going to be better, but no – it’s just too slow. 5 mana 7/5 is just not good to put into your deck. Yes, it will revive itself… eventually. That’s the problem. Rogue is a tempo class, and especially in tempo mirrors you can’t afford to wait often 10 or so turns to get it back. Waxadred works much better in slow matchups, where your games last long enough for the revive part to make a difference, although slow decks still usually have a way to get rid of it permanently (Silence, Transform). I’ve seen this card being generated by Draconic Lackey many times and it honestly was pretty good, but as something extra, not as a card that starts in your build.

Bandersmosh – Bandersmosh is too random for its own good. You always get a 5 mana 5/5, which is… not great, but playable. It’s good only if it has an amazing effect. But the effect depends on the Legendary you roll, and it’s random. It’s a bit like Shifter Zerus or Chameleos. The thing I dislike about it is that you can’t “pause” the rotation. Even if get something good, you can’t always play it on a given turn. Maybe you need to play a removal, maybe you would float a lot of mana because you have nothing else to fill the rest of turn with, or maybe you don’t even have 5 mana yet… After playing around with it a while, while it has some solid moments, most of the time it’s a dead card in your hand. Before the rotation, it could at least high-roll a Hir'eek, the Bat – it was a board full of 5/5’s for 5 mana (but it’s obviously no longer possible in Standard).

Chenvaala – Okay, here’s the thing – Chenvaala has actually seen some play in Cyclone Mage in Descent of Dragons. But the deck was already completely off-meta then. Cyclone Mage itself used to be a meta breaker, but it disappeared after Conjurer's Calling and Luna's Pocket Galaxy got nerfed. Now that Elemental Evocation has rotated out and Mountain Giant was Hall of Famed… I don’t see this deck working again. Of course, anything can happen, it all depends on the cards we’ll get, but we’d need A LOT of synergistic stuff to make it working.

Zzeraku the Warped – The Big Warlock Dragon is pretty interesting in theory, but too slow in practice. In slower matchups, most of the time it gets removed the moment its dropped with no extra value. Sure, if it’s played on Turn 10 alongisde Hero Power, it summons an extra 6/6, which is not bad… but there are simply better 10 mana moves in the game. Heck, most of the time even Lord Jaraxxus would be better for slower matchups. And the problem is that against faster decks, it’s just not great. On Turn 8, if you’re alive by then, you’re usually either struggling to survive or have already stabilized. If you have already stabilized, his effect won’t come very handy, because you’re winning the game anyway. And if you’re struggling to survive, you usually have to drop Taunts or remove minions every turn, you can’t just skip one to drop this. If you’re too low, opponent will just ignore it, go face and kill you. Overall, it’s not the worst card, it has seen SOME play, but even at that time it was merely an addition and not a staple. I don’t really see it being a great Legendary over the rest of this Standard year.

Nithogg – The problem with Nithogg is that it’s just SO SLOW. 6 mana 5/5 is not good. Yes, it summons two 0/3’s that your opponent has to clear… but that’s it, they’re 0 attack minions. If he has any board presence, he will just kill them, making it a 6 mana 5/5 “heal for 6″ (because otherwise that 6 damage would go face”. Which, I guess, is not the worst thing ever, but lots of times it’s just useless. You might bait an AoE from a slower deck, but it’s also not a given (because they might be able to just clear the eggs). Maybe, possibly, in some kind of Dragon Shaman build… But even then the deck doesn’t need that many Dragons (because it has only a single synergy – Lightning Breath) so you will be fine without Nithogg. The card wasn’t good and I don’t see it being good unless Blizzard pushes Dragon Shaman theme (which I doubt they will, as Shaman is not one of the “Dragon classes”).

Year of the Phoenix (2020 Sets)

The Year of the Phoenix consists of Ashes of Outland and two expansions yet to be released (most likely out in August and December 2020). All three sets will rotate out of the Standard format with the release of the first expansion in 2022 (most likely around April 2022). Keep in mind that these sets will remain in Standard longer than Year of the Dragon sets, meaning that these predictions might be less accurate in the long run. There’s no telling what synergies might be printed in the expansions that are yet to come.

“Safe” to Disenchant Legendaries from Ashes of Outland

Ashes of Outland is the latest expansion, and the thing about new expansions is that people tend to experiment with all the new cards A LOT, not to mention that it’s too early to really tell that real value a lot of those Legendaries have. Ashes of Outland has a lot of high power Legendaries. At the same time, it doesn’t have nearly any cards that are so blatantly useless that we can recommend dusting them without any regrets (like it happened multiple times in the past).

Which means that all we can do is list the Legendary cards that are least playable RIGHT NOW. Those Legendaries see almost no play in the current meta – it might be because they didn’t find the right deck yet, we don’t have enough synergies currently in Standard, or maybe because other meta decks are keeping them from seeing play. But disenchant those only at your own risk – if I were you, I would not touch any of them. They will be around in Standard for another 5 expansions, which means that the chance that they will see play at some point is huge. Since you were warned, here’s the list:

Ysiel Windsinger – Ysiel is currently one of the least popular and weakest cards from Ashes of Outland. That’s because right now there’s absolutely no reason to put her into your deck. Druid has no 9-10 mana spells (and little to none expensive spells in general) and without reducing her mana cost, you can only play her with a single spell. If anything, it’s much easier and better to cheat the expensive spells out with Kael'thas Sunstrider. However, that’s how it works RIGHT NOW. She already sees some play in the Wild, and she has a lot of potential. Her effect is very powerful and we might be one or two cards away from making her playable. Alternatively, Blizzard might tip-toe around her effect and not release any synergies whatsoever.

Bulwark of Azzinoth – I’ve seen similar custom cards for years now, and I always found them quite interesting. Bulwark is a great way to save some life, particularly against big minions. The problem arises when you start analyzing the cards. When you play against slower decks that run bigger minions, you don’t necessarily need to save health. You can remove the minions most of the time anyway, and you don’t mind taking a hit or two. It should be more useful when you play it against Aggro, where you actually want to save health, but then it won’t work that well, because they play a lot of 1-3 attack minions. In the current meta, it’s even worse, because Demon Hunter – the class you would want to play it against most – deals with it so easily. 1 attack weapon hits, small minions, and then – later in the game – Priestess of Fury which counters it completely. You might save 5 or so health, but if that’s the case, why not just play Shield Block instead? I think that we would need a very specific meta for this card to become playable, and it’s impossible to say whether that will happen or not.

Al'ar – Okay, I know that some players have experimented with Al’ar, but the truth is that it just doesn’t work. If I had to pick a Legendary from Ashes of Outland that has least potential, it would be Al’ar. The reason is that its body is incredibly bad. 5 mana 7/3 minion is definitely not something you want to play. While yes, it still spawns an Egg that has 3 health, the Egg doesn’t hit back, so it can be removed very easily without sacrificing any minions. If you somehow manage to get multiple copies of it, it might be pretty tricky for your opponent to get rid of, but most of the time it just doesn’t work. I mean, even the weakest Legendaries can become playable with the right support, but I wouldn’t bet on Al’ar becoming a great meta pick.

Beastmaster Leoroxx – I thought that Beastmaster is going to be better. And to be honest, it absolutely would at the time when Big Hunter was a thing – the deck that played Charged Devilsaur, King Krush, Witchwood Grizzly and so on. You often ended up wtih some of them in your hand, and summoning all of them would be nuts. However, Hunter doesn’t play Big Beast strategy right now. Aggro decks are some of the most popular versions (Face, Dragon), and even Highlander is playing a pretty fast game. However, Leoroxx has A LOT of potential. A few bigger Beast or synergies can make it very powerful. I can also see some great combos including it, but Hunter was never great at combo decks, simply because the class is not great at cycling & stalling. Right now, however, the card is pretty bad.

Magtheridon – Just like many players, I have overvalued Magtheridon before release. Getting a 12/12 on top of a full board clear is, obviously, a very powerful effect. The problem is that it’s not that easy to combo him, and you would need to run a bunch of cards that you normally wouldn’t put into your deck. For example – Warlock builds don’t play Hellfire. They do play Crazed Netherwing, BUT it costs 1 more mana and the 5/5 body also dies, not to mention that you need to have another Dragon to activate it. The fact that you would prefer to play two of those on the same turn also means that it’s a late game combo. Most of the other classes either have a hard time removing the 1/3’s, or they could need to put a bunch of bad cards into their decks in order to do it. I think that if we find a deck that naturally wants to play a bunch of 3 damage AoE removals anyway, Magtheridon might fit into that build as an extra huge threat. But right now, it’s just not the case.

Lady Vashj & The Lurker Below – Those two cards being bad right now is not really their fault, but rather the fault of Shaman class. It’s THE WORST class in the game right now by a pretty significant margin. And while more aggressive builds like Overload or Totem can still work okay-ish, slower builds are pretty bad. In theory, both Vashj & Lurker are solid cards, but they only fit into Control decks, or possibly some slower Midrange decks. Right now no decks like that exist, but if you like Shaman class, I would definitely keep those, because the chances are that they will become playable a few expansions from now.

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

328 Comments

  1. Psychiclocust
    August 30, 2021 at 8:32 am

    Any update of this list for a f2p returning player ?
    thanks in advance

  2. Potato Cat
    May 8, 2020 at 2:36 pm

    what about the lackey guy from awakening? ive never seen him played

  3. OldManSanns
    May 7, 2020 at 12:51 pm

    QQ AoS having the more entries on this list than any other expansion (7 versus 5-6 on the other 3), despite them having an extra year of play left.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 7, 2020 at 4:39 pm

      Don’t judge the expansion by that. I only listed cards that are played in less than 0.5% of the decks with no sifting through. At this point, it’s way too early to tell which Legendaries will get better etc. with time, so playability in the current meta is the only thing I could base the list on.

      I just wouldn’t disenchant anything from the latest set, but if someone still wants to do it, those are the cards that are least useful RIGHT NOW (but I think that some of them have a lot of potential, such as Leoroxx or Ysiel).

  4. Shurchil
    May 7, 2020 at 12:16 pm

    Surprised by some card and even some comments on the cards.
    Example: Warlock build dont run Hellfire? Do we play different games?

    Also I see some cards being played frequently and the people utilizing them quiet well…
    I appreciate your effort of this guide.
    But I dont know if I have such a different view on the game…
    Also: would really love to see a wild legendary DE guide. I have some stuff to DE…

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 7, 2020 at 4:37 pm

      Which Warlock builds run Hellfire? Zoo obviously doesn’t run it, neither does Galakrond version. And those are the only two in the meta.

      And what cards are you talking about specifically? The ones that are played frequently but are on the list?

  5. Albionflux
    May 6, 2020 at 6:56 pm

    to judge if old nat would be used, look at mana tide totem they compare pretty similar

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 7, 2020 at 4:41 pm

      It would still be a pretty difficult comparison. Old Nat would be potentially much stronger (1 mana less, 1 health more) but way less consistent (draws only 50% of time). I’m happy that the card no longer sees play, because those coin flips were awful. Seeing your opponent drawing card each turn and you missing 2-3 times in a row felt really bad :/

  6. Nerose
    May 6, 2020 at 4:33 pm

    We appreciate it! I recall it looking exactly like the “safely craft” list in the past, which is easier to skim through. Either way, this list is great.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 6, 2020 at 6:16 pm

      You’re talking about the images? I can add them when I find some time 🙂

      • Nerose
        May 7, 2020 at 3:48 pm

        Awesome!

        To be clear, I’m referring to a compiled image list, in case you are referring to the missing individual images.

        • Stonekeep - Site Admin
          May 7, 2020 at 4:42 pm

          That’s what I thought! Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll add them soon!

  7. Jianto
    April 4, 2020 at 12:03 pm

    Nice and useful but can you update again

  8. NATPAGLE4LYFE69420
    November 17, 2019 at 6:10 pm

    This list is COMPLETELY ASS GARBATGE. Why would they put NAT PAGEL on this list of bad legendaeries???/ He is greate at eveything he does, like fishing and breathing. not to mention gruul!!!!1!!Nat Pagles brother (it’s cannon, look it up!), who is very good at growing big and strong.
    WHO ELSE CAN GEt =+1/+1 each turn? NOBODY!!!. Shade of naxxuramus can suck the inside of my ass. he is unbalanced and broked beyond beleif. he deserves to be locked up in federal prison for his crims against living creatures. My main poijt is that Nat PAgle is a creatuer of beauty and grace. Gruul is a ssaoft hearted cuddle bunny who kill without hesitation. I haven’t even mentioned Millhouse Manastorm, who is such a good card and is trying to help out his buddies. this list is garbage and whoever made it is garbage. #NATPAGLE4LYFE

    • Potato Cat
      May 8, 2020 at 2:28 pm

      I like how this list is not very accurate but you complain about the cards that actually are pretty garbage instead of the cards on this list that are pretty good

  9. Testing223
    October 23, 2019 at 12:27 pm

    -1;select pg_sleep(6); —

  10. Testing223
    October 23, 2019 at 12:27 pm

    1*1*1*1

  11. NinjaN9
    October 2, 2019 at 6:13 pm

    In the newest announcement, HS said the would be reworking the quests, so I would put in a warning or disclaimer saying that, Raid the Sky Temple might just become the best quest in the game

  12. GlosuuLang
    September 17, 2019 at 5:29 am

    Saviors of Uldum has some really good legendaries, proof is that only 4 made it here as disenchant candidates.

    I think some Quests should be reworked, though. It’s insulting that a Druid can reliably complete his quest by turn 4/5 without even playing a card and Mage and Warlock have to do weird shenanigans to complete their quests. Also, some rewards are really a joke. Ideally rewards should synergize with your quest, just like Paladin Quest, or Hunter Quest, for example. But no, Mage and Warlock have rewards that are actually pretty dumb (Mage: I have to run tons of spells to complete the quest, what do I get? More spells??? An ideal reward here would be a passive hero Power that summons a minion of the same cost of a spell you cast. Warlock: I have to draw tons of cards to complete the quest, what do I get? A discount on the few cards I have remaining in my deck??? Seriously? Why not a passive Hero Power that reads: “Whenever you draw a card, deal 1 damage to your opponent, and restore 1 Health to your hero. Upgrades with each card drawn”?

  13. CD001
    September 13, 2019 at 4:59 am

    Some of these cards might be terrible to put in your deck – but they’re awesome with Zarog’s Crown. Dropping Gruul x2 for 3 mana, oh yeah – Colossus of the Moon, hellyeah.

    So they kind of need to exist to make crazy cards like Heistbaron Togwaggle good… but that doesn’t mean you ever want to craft them or put them in your deck 🙂

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      September 13, 2019 at 7:35 am

      Not only Crown – just random effects in general. Lots of Legends that aren’t good enough to put into your deck can be good if you Discover or randomly get them from something 🙂

  14. Axeliloadi
    September 12, 2019 at 11:56 pm

    It could be a good idea to mention in the introduction that blizzard buffed some old cards last expansion and this could very well be happening again, right? Just as an addition to your already strong disclaimer text 🙂

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      September 13, 2019 at 7:19 am

      You’re right, I will add that to the disclaimer soon. I really want to have everything covered so people can make informed decisions before dusting Legendaries 🙂

  15. OldManSanns
    September 12, 2019 at 2:19 pm

    I’m surprised you put Mage Quest and Warrior Quest on the chopping block but not Warlock Quest. The former 2 are at least generic enough to justify budget homebrews or speculate about comebacks in future expansions; the latter seems like its pretty much as good as its going to get right now which is ~40% assuming you have a bunch of other legendaries to synergize.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      September 12, 2019 at 3:09 pm

      I really, really thought about including it, but I didn’t mostly because it’s significantly more popular than the other two. I don’t think that Warlock’s Quest will ever be good, but it’s actually semi-common on the ladder. 1.5-2% play rate is more than some competitively viable decks, so yeah. It also has a slightly higher win rate than the other two – it’s still ~45%, but at least not ~40%.

      Unless something drastically change, I will probably be including it next expansion.

      • SlapLaB
        September 14, 2019 at 12:18 pm

        I really hope they will buff those quests. It’s such a disappointment to open a Legendary, see it’s a Quest… and then realise it’s one of them…

        • Stonekeep - Site Admin
          September 15, 2019 at 5:46 am

          There’s always a chance for the buffs, although pretty slim, given that they’ve only done it once so far :/

  16. Stonekeep - Site Admin
    September 12, 2019 at 7:04 am

    List of the cards you can “safely” Disenchant was updated for Saviors of Uldum. Comments below this one might be outdated.

    Please read the entire introduction before commenting and especially before dusting your cards. The chances are that whatever you wanted to say was already said there.

  17. ShadowMurlocHS
    June 13, 2019 at 8:40 pm

    I think this should be updated, like what you did on your Legendary Crafting guide @Stonekeep. Hope you guys have the time to do so! 🙂

  18. Elfstone
    May 10, 2019 at 10:43 am

    You forget that there’s something called Silence Priest. The Beast works great in this archetype. With Unsleeping Soul, you get two 9/7 for 10 mana. Not bad.

    • SLima
      May 14, 2019 at 5:32 pm

      Silence Priest is an aggressive archetype right now. You don’t want to wait that long to play your Unsleeping Souls. Some of the most popular decks also don’t care about 2 9/7 on turn 10. Control and Bomb Warrior will just blast them away with their never ending army of Omega Devastators. Against Tempo Rogue, you will be dead way before you can get to 10 mana. The point is: The Beast is too slow for Silence Priest. You are better off duplicating your Hench-Clan Shadequills, Arcane Watchers or Ancient Watchers.

  19. Shurchil
    May 10, 2019 at 12:32 am

    So I’ve got Madame Lazul as golden copy from the packs. I thought she might be viable but my problem is that I dont play that much priest. Also The fact that it is listed here as disenchant candidate makes me consider dusting her and crafting something I actually wanna play. As F2P player I am always concerned about dusting those new legendaries because they might be viable in the future. :/
    I also agree on most of the calls here. But I will hold on my Lunar Pocket Galaxy and my Flark’s Boomzooka because I really like those cards.

    But it is time to say goodbye to Chameleos and Lazul. I just dont play enough priest to have them I guess.

    • Kuskie
      May 10, 2019 at 11:11 am

      I’m also free to play and had a similar situation at the early stage of the game. I got a golden copy of the beast and disenchanted it for a useful legendary. So I think dusting a golden legendary would actually be fine: craft a more useful legendary for you that can be put in your deck.

      However, don’t assume you will never play priest. archetypes change. For me, I thought I would never play rogue so I disenchanted two preparations–big mistake considering how popular they are now. Don’t have a fixed mindset on what characters you won’t touch and disenchant good legendaries from that class. Just DON’T.

  20. Isshin
    May 9, 2019 at 5:18 pm

    Any thoughts on Bwonsamdi?

    • Shurchil
      May 10, 2019 at 12:33 am

      Having it since release. Barely played it. Never saw it on ladder. Might be a candidate to get dusted.

  21. JoyDivision
    May 8, 2019 at 11:24 pm

    ‘…most Legendary cards are not competitively viable.’

    That’s what I call understatement. 😀

    Thx for the update!

    • Shurchil
      May 10, 2019 at 12:25 am

      Actually I was surprised how well rated most of them were with the release of RoS. But turns out I crafted more Classic legendaries than anything else. Funny. 🙂

  22. Axiotes
    May 8, 2019 at 11:40 am

    What do you think of Da Undatakah? Is that ever going to work?

    • Albionflux
      May 8, 2019 at 4:23 pm

      kinda works in mech paladin
      but currenly only real use is a way to get mechathun use
      but as mechathun is rarely used it has low value

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 8, 2019 at 7:11 pm

      The card has potential, I would not disenchant it. It has seen a bit of play already and it can be a part of some combos in the future.

    • Shurchil
      May 10, 2019 at 12:24 am

      Undatakah is one of those cards I always try to fit in decks.
      Right now I am using it in:
      – Deathrattle Hunter (Standard)
      – Mecha’thun Warrior (Standard)
      – Big Priest (Wild)
      – Immortal Prelate Undatakah Combo Paladin (Standard)

      It is like Barisa Lynchen. Those cards dont have that big impact but they have their moments and I just really like to play them.
      But that is just me.

  23. JJzeJetplane
    May 8, 2019 at 10:09 am

    In your explanation for Betrug, you mentioned plot twist as the only combo card. The other combo card that I feel is even better is Soularium, allowing you to draw 3 cards that can all hit the board. If you’re on coin, you could then coin out the plot twist after that and prevent the discarding and combo even harder. I’m not saying this makes it viable or anything, and I’m still gonna hold out on D/E’ing for a while, but food for thought.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 8, 2019 at 11:16 am

      Soularium might be considered a combo piece, but it’s really awkward, because you likely won’t get to play the cards (unless you draw something that costs 1), so you discard all 3. Drawing “only” 3 as opposed to shuffling your entire hand (usually 5+) also means that the chance of getting one of the minions you want is much lower.

      Yes, the dream is to follow it up with Coin + Plot Twist, but you need to go second, keep your Coin for that long (which is pretty difficult) and have all 3 cards.

      I also would not Dust any of the Rise of Shadows cards yet. Betrug has some potential. I honestly don’t think that it’s even going to be an amazing card, but anything can happen in Hearthstone.

  24. Taznak
    May 8, 2019 at 5:09 am

    Cool update! Don’t think I’ll be disenchanting much, I already have 30k arcane dust saved up, but I still enjoy the theorycrafting exercise.

    I do disagree on exactly one card, though. High Priestess Jeklik. After the Year of the Dragon rotation, I think a 4 mana, 3/4 Taunt + Lifesteal minion is borderline good enough to play on its own merits on a slow deck, especially for a class like Warlock that doesn’t have great healing tools (RIP spellstone). If you add ANY amount of support for her discard ability, like wanting to run Shriek on your deck, then I think Jeklik will definitely see play.

    So… why doesn’t she see play now? According to hsreplay, Zoo decks account for 74% of all Warlock decks. Ouch. No one’s playing Control Warlock right now, it’s a weak archetype, and even if you enjoy playing it, you might not own Jeklik. I think she’ll see play with future expansions, though.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 8, 2019 at 7:59 am

      I actually agree, but there’s a sort of circle you might not be thinking about.

      She is now borderline playable, because the quality of Warlock cards is pretty low. But Control Warlock is not playable for exactly the same reason. If Warlock gets better support for Control archetype (especially more healing/removal – that’s important) and that becomes playable, wouldn’t that mean that Jeklik will no longer be good enough to include?

      I’m not saying that it will 100% be a case, but for her to be playable (IMO), Warlock would need to get BOTH good Control cards and more Discard support, which is a tall order since we’re looking at only 2 more expansions of her in Standard.

  25. CD001
    May 8, 2019 at 4:34 am

    The introduction of Lackeys actually makes Glinda Crowskin probably better than she’s ever been; lackeys’ battlecries are quite powerful for 1-cost cards so they’re good with echo.

    Still safe to disenchant Glinda, yes, but she *is* fun in Zoolock with lackeys – especially if, by some miracle, you manage to have Glinda and a Magic Carpet on the board at the start of a turn…

    • JJzeJetplane
      May 8, 2019 at 10:00 am

      I run Glinda for the fun value, and those turns that can go bonkers with the lackeys (plus I unpacked her in gold, so always wanted to find a way to get her involved).

  26. Stonekeep - Site Admin
    May 8, 2019 at 3:04 am

    List of the cards you can “safely” Disenchant was updated for Rise of Shadows. Comments below this one might be outdated.

    And for God’s sake, please read the entire post carefully before leaving a comment. Any of your concerns are most likely already answered there. Replying to “uhhh, BUUUUT DISENCHANTING LEGENDARIES IS A BAD IDEA” for the 100th time is far from my favorite pastime.

  27. Luxky
    March 10, 2019 at 11:42 am

    How about Gral, the Shark and Electra Stormsurge? I’m trying to get back into the game after not playing the past couple expansions. As of now if I disenchant Illidian and Nozdormu I will have 800 dust and unless Gral and Electra are viable i’d like to disenchant them to build a deck. Thanks!

    • Albionflux
      March 30, 2019 at 4:28 pm

      electra is extreamly powerful.
      need to wipe several 5 4-6 health minnions, electra lightning storm
      got a lot of minnions but no real power, electa bloodlust
      almost dead eleectra healing rain
      etc electra enables a lot of combos.
      1 alot of people dont know, the 3 cost discover a spell next spell is 3 less
      electra that get 2 spells and next spell costs 6 less.
      yea not alot of spells for shaman that expensive but 1 cost spell stone?