With Whispers of the Old Gods came four incredibly powerful cards that the set was named after – the Old Gods. Each Old God is extremely powerful in its own way, but which God is the best? Before the set was released, many were thinking that C’Thun would be the strongest. Yogg-Saron was too random to be effective, Y’Shaarj was simply too expensive for what it did, and N’Zoth decks couldn’t work because we had just lost Sludge Belcher and Piloted Shredder. Or at least that’s what many people were thinking going in. But now that the dust has settled, our initial perceptions were off in a few cases. Let’s take an in-depth look at each God to see where they have settled into the meta, and how strong they are.
4. Y’Shaarj, Rage Unbound
Y’Shaarj was seen as the worst Old God by far when they were announced. Unfortunately for him, this is completely accurate. While all the Old Gods cost ten, he’s the only one that doesn’t seriously affect the board the turn he is played, giving your opponent an entire turn to react to his presence. In order for Y’Shaarj to be strong, his first pull would need to pull out a large taunt minion. Any other time that you play him would simply be a win-more situation, as you cannot give your opponent two turns to play and expect to win in a close game.
There really isn’t much to say about the meta for Y’Shaarj. People attempted to slot him into Control Warrior and Ramp Druid, but in both cases he simply wasn’t strong enough to warrant the cost. In most cases he was replaced with Deathwing or even Soggoth the Slitherer. Overall, Y’Shaarj is easily the worst of the Old Gods.
3. Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End
Yogg-Saron was a surprise to everyone in its level of viability. Originally everyone thought that Yogg would simply be for fun decks, even Blizzard stating that they intended the randomness to be fun but not competitive in the new set. However, Yogg has surprised everyone. As it turns out, there are quite a few spells that can only be cast on your opponent, or simply summon creatures to your side of the field. Because of this, Yogg isn’t 50/50 in terms of who he benefits, as the odds are skewed significantly in favour of the caster. Also, Yogg is a great play against a full board, since there are so many spells that clear the field or simply do damage in general. Sure there will always be cases where Yogg simply Pyroblasts you in the face, but in general it represents a positive bet.
So where does Yogg fit into the meta? There are several decks that contain him, such as Miracle Rogue or the new Yogg Druid. One of the things that no one expected for this meta was the power of spells. Miracle Rogue regained quite a bit of its strength, while Fandral Staghelm has given Druid the power it needed behind its many ‘Choose One’ spells. Because these decks do just fine without Yogg, the player does not need to compromise the integrity or strength of his deck in order to fit Yogg in. He’s simply there as a last resort when all else fails.
It was a close decision for whether Yogg should be second or third, but I decided on third based entirely on the fact that Yogg does kill its user in a decent percentage of cases.
2. C’Thun
Going into Whispers of the Old Gods, C’Thun looked to be the best of the Old Gods. He has quite a bit of support from his cultists, and cards like Twin Emperor Vek’Lor showed so much promise that C’Thun decks seemed like they would be dominant. While they certainly are strong, C’Thun decks haven’t become as dominant as some may have thought. In fact, he isn’t even the strongest of the Old Gods.
C’Thun decks are still very strong and viable, as I wrote about here. However, as I discussed, they certainly aren’t tier one, floating around the middle of the pack. At Dreamhack Austin, only two of the top eight players thought C’Thun decks were strong enough to bring as one of their four decks. While C’Thun remains a very strong deck and gives newer players a cheap option for a viable deck, he simply hasn’t broken into the upper tiers of play. This is largely due to the slow nature of the deck, with many of the minions simply trading poorly due to their lack of abilities other than buffing C’Thun.
C’Thun beats out Yogg due to his reliability. Although his ability is technically random, because of how high his attack often gets, you will often be able to confidently clear what you need to, or simply blast your opponent in the face. Also, C’Thun and Twin Emperor Vek’Lor go hand in hand, and the Emperors are still extremely powerful.
1. N’Zoth, the Corruptor
N’Zoth was another Old God that many people underestimated. The issue was that people saw the Deathrattle tag and saw that Sludge Belcher and Piloted Shredder were rotating out. When neither was replaced with new overpowered Deathrattle minions, most people dismissed N’Zoth as being too weak. What very few predicted was that N’Zoth would find his home in slower control decks. As it turns out, N’Zoth only has to bring back one or two high value Deathrattle minions in order for him to be worth it.
N’Zoth found a strong home in Control Paladin, where the deck is based around keeping the board clear for the first few turns, and then dropping large Deathrattle minions. It runs quite a bit of healing so that big plays can be supplemented the next turn, allowing for large Tirion or N’Zoth plays much more confidently. Tirion in particular is strong due to his Taunt, stopping any counter push against N’Zoth. Backed up with Sylvanas and Cairne, N’Zoth brings an army whenever he enters play.
Finding a home in one of the top tier decks of the new meta, N’Zoth has surprised everyone and managed to slide into the position of strongest Old God.