Top 8 Sleeper Hits Of Standard

[Paracel 165]

Hi everyone, I think some off-topic banter can be fun.

Let's make a list of Sleeper Hits cards - the ones nobody really ever played before Year of Kraken but which are very relevant now. 

Then we can try to collectively rate them in the order of "importance", whatever that may be.

I'll start it with some obvious picks. Feel free to mention anything that comes to your mind!

 

Huge Toad. Oh God, I hate Huge Toad. But it does so much heavy lifting for Hunter.

Doomsayer. Do you remember first days after WotOG release? He was everywhere.

Crazed Alchemist. Do you remember first days after WotOG release? That's how be beat Doomsayer. And Totems. Oh God, I used to hate Totems.

Stampeding Kodo. Do you remember first days after WotOG release? (Oops overused line). Even Hunters played it! Also it's cool with the new The Curator.

Commanding Shout. Makes 3 different powerful Warrior combo decks powerful. And yeah, it's been there at full strength since Classic. I'd rate it #1 sleeper pick of all time.

Onyxia. Play it 2 years ago and you'd be called insane. Now it's a staple for Druid and Dragon Warrior.

Cairne Bloodhoof. Used to be too slow, now value is fun, and so is N'Zoth, the Corruptor.

Faerie Dragon, Alexstrasza's Champion, Blackwing Corruptor, Twilight Guardian and Drakonid Crusher - they make a whole rock band together! Some of them were played, but let's face it - Dragon Priest was and still is a meme, not a powerful deck.

What else is out there, wrecking Standard format?

Edited September 5, 2016 by Paracel

[Rubidium 7]

I wish I could join in but I only started this game in may.

I'm going to guess a sleeper deck for the future: A heavy-card draw based secret hunter which forgoes most standard hunter cards like Animal Companion and Houndmaster in favor of more card draw to amplify secret synergy. I could be wrong though 

[Valks 2,373]

Moonfire WHY. WHY THO. WHY IS THIS SO GOOD WITH MALY DECKS. GO AWAY I HATE IT.

[positiv2 950]

Not sure if I recall correctly, but miracle was a very rare sight in the time between Gadgetzan Auctioneer nerf and Tinker's Sharpsword Oil nerf. Not sure if it counts since they were popular before, but so was Stampeding Kodo, so I'd say they do. Sinister Strike, Conceal, Shiv and of course Gadgetzan Auctioneer.
Dragon priest was a great way to deal with secret paladins, and was one of the best decks during the reign of Mysterious Challenger.

[Valks 2,373]

58 minutes ago, positiv2 said:

Not sure if I recall correctly, but miracle was a very rare sight in the time between Gadgetzan Auctioneer nerf and Tinker's Sharpsword Oil nerf. Not sure if it counts since they were popular before, but so was Stampeding Kodo, so I'd say they do. Sinister Strike, Conceal, Shiv and of course Gadgetzan Auctioneer.
Dragon priest was a great way to deal with secret paladins, and was one of the best decks during the reign of Mysterious Challenger.

We all know the real hero prior to Secret Paladin's reign... 

[Paracel 165]

6 hours ago, Blainie said:

Moonfire WHY. WHY THO. WHY IS THIS SO GOOD WITH MALY DECKS. GO AWAY I HATE IT.

Let's face it : card is tailor-made for Malygos shenanigans. Infinite mana efficiency, anyone?

2 hours ago, positiv2 said:

Not sure if I recall correctly, but miracle was a very rare sight in the time between Gadgetzan Auctioneer nerf and Tinker's Sharpsword Oil nerf. Not sure if it counts since they were popular before, but so was Stampeding Kodo, so I'd say they do. Sinister Strike, Conceal, Shiv and of course Gadgetzan Auctioneer.
Dragon priest was a great way to deal with secret paladins, and was one of the best decks during the reign of Mysterious Challenger.

Oil was just better than Miracle. Meta was fast and high pressure, having a little space for a deck like Miracle. I do agree though that Auctioneer had the best deal to make a flashy appearance in the Standard format.

Let's remember for a minute that Challenger did not get a lot of positive reviews during the spoiler season...

1 hour ago, Blainie said:

We all know the real hero prior to Secret Paladin's reign... 

Does that make Warsong Commander The #1 Sleeper Hit? Nobody saw it coming.  

Too bad we'll never see her charge forward again...

[Valks 2,373]

3 minutes ago, Paracel said:

Does that make Warsong Commander The #1 Sleeper Hit? Nobody saw it coming.  

Too bad we'll never see her charge forward again...

When they nerfed her initially from buffing every minion, it was a sad day. Then, the king of HS appeared, brought all of his friends and made magic!

[KingMe 289]

Hmm. Let's think. Ok these 2 of the first ones to come to mind. Maybe not wrecking standard but popularity has shot up. 

Lock and Load: Everyone was excited for this card until we got it. It remained in the attic with the seasonal decorations until Standard gave us Yogg-Saron, Hope's End. Now every time I face a Hunter I assume it's a Yogg and Load build.

Blood Knight: I forgot this guy existed until Standard rolled around and gave him just enough Divine Shields to possibly consider including him as a tech card. 

Just think about this, this is just the first year of standard and you know It's only going to get wilder as the ride continues. I don't know about you guys but I'm having fun with all the variety that is out there right now.

 

 

[Valks 2,373]

12 hours ago, KingMe said:

Blood Knight: I forgot this guy existed until Standard rolled around and gave him just enough Divine Shields to possibly consider including him as a tech card. 

This is one of those cards that I think is just so over-rated. As a counter to the divine aggro pally, fair enough, but the actual decks themselves often revolve around being able to maintain board pressure with divine shields. By popping a BK, you just kind of open yourself up to getting board cleared.

This is one of those cards that I've always stayed away from putting in the divine decks because I just think it weakens your board so much.

[positiv2 950]

@BlainieBlood Knight was used as a counter. There was a period of about 3 or 4 days where paladin was the most played class on the ladder, with Divine Shield pally being the most popular of pally decks. Since most of them didn't run any hard or soft removal, such as Keeper of Uldaman, the huge Blood Knight was often enough to win the game. 

[PaasHaaS 81]

Just about every pirate in the pirate warrior deck that was popular for the first few weeks of WotOG.

[Valks 2,373]

20 hours ago, positiv2 said:

@BlainieBlood Knight was used as a counter. There was a period of about 3 or 4 days where paladin was the most played class on the ladder, with Divine Shield pally being the most popular of pally decks. Since most of them didn't run any hard or soft removal, such as Keeper of Uldaman, the huge Blood Knight was often enough to win the game. 

I used the Divine Moroes deck to grind out from rank 18 to rank 5 or something last season. I actually ran Uldaman specifically for big minions, but never found a Blood Knight to use it on. Shame :(

20 hours ago, PaasHaaS said:

Just about every pirate in the pirate warrior deck that was popular for the first few weeks of WotOG.

+1 to this one. Arcanite Reaper seemed to be getting more play as well, rather than just being a "don't have X card, play Arcanite Reaper"

[Paracel 165]

50 minutes ago, Blainie said:

21 hours ago, PaasHaaS said:

Just about every pirate in the pirate warrior deck that was popular for the first few weeks of WotOG.

+1 to this one. Arcanite Reaper seemed to be getting more play as well, rather than just being a "don't have X card, play Arcanite Reaper"

I was so excited to be running around my house, screaming "ARCANITE REAPER HOOOOOO" on top of my lungs I never actually played the deck. 

Losing to Pirate Warrior was fun, it felt like a Wild West gunslinging movie. Either player was really dead really fast.

It was actually pretty cool from gamedesign persperctive. Pirates are the problem children of Hearthstone tribal family, while being much cooler than some gigantic flying flame breathing lizard pests (obviously) and Musclular Manly Murlocs(debatable). It's strange how one card that doesn't actually do a whole lot for Pirates brought them back to radar.

^{ARCANITE REAPER HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!}

[Valks 2,373]

1 hour ago, Paracel said:

I was so excited to be running around my house, screaming "ARCANITE REAPER HOOOOOO" on top of my lungs I never actually played the deck. 

Losing to Pirate Warrior was fun, it felt like a Wild West gunslinging movie. Either player was really dead really fast.

It was actually pretty cool from gamedesign persperctive. Pirates are the problem children of Hearthstone tribal family, while being much cooler than some gigantic flying flame breathing lizard pests (obviously) and Musclular Manly Murlocs(debatable). It's strange how one card that doesn't actually do a whole lot for Pirates brought them back to radar.

^{ARCANITE REAPER HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!}

Perfect comparison there! It was such a good deck for fast ranking.. Either win by turn X or concede and move on. Fast games, easy wins.

[KingMe 289]

On 9/7/2016 at 6:37 AM, Blainie said:

This is one of those cards that I think is just so over-rated. As a counter to the divine aggro pally, fair enough, but the actual decks themselves often revolve around being able to maintain board pressure with divine shields. By popping a BK, you just kind of open yourself up to getting board cleared.

This is one of those cards that I've always stayed away from putting in the divine decks because I just think it weakens your board so much.

I completely agree. I can only seeing him as a tech card. Yeah he can buffed to unbelievable power levels (Over 9,000) but that comes at the cost of your decks staying power, which is what makes the deck as viable as it is.  

[Valks 2,373]

12 hours ago, KingMe said:

I completely agree. I can only seeing him as a tech card. Yeah he can buffed to unbelievable power levels (Over 9,000) but that comes at the cost of your decks staying power, which is what makes the deck as viable as it is.  

I can understand where @positiv2 is coming from with the idea of it as a counter, but I never understood why Paladin players would do it to their own board of minions, then watch as their entire board is removed.