Good cards that don't see much play

[Sevrah]

There seems to be so many decent cards floating around the classic & basic sets that don't see much play. Or at least haven't since like 2014/2015

With the whole even/odd deck structures being introduced it's been cool to see at least some of these finally find temporary homes. It was so neat seeing odd pally run 3 neutral basic minions like sw champ, wolf rider, raid leader in the early witchwood meta. Hopefully with this upcoming rotation a number of these will be brought back!

I think a problem with many of them is they either don't really fit into a current deck or they're just too average. Like shattered sun cleric is an example of a card that's extremely OK

Examples

-Dark Iron Dwarf
-Scarlet Crusader
-Argent Protector
-Cruel Taskmaster
-Stormforged Axe
-Sword of Justice
-Cenarius
-tasdingo
-Ancient of War
-Shadow Bolt
-Arathi Weaponsmith
-Cult Master
-Hammer of Wrath
-Shattered Sun Cleric
-Temple Enforcer
-Worgen Infiltrator
-Earthen Ring Farseer
-Abomination
-Stranglethorn Tiger
-Cleave
-Starfire
-Multi Shot
-Assassins Blade
-Arcane Explosion
-Holy Nova

[melzas]

Thats why I only play arena. I see all of these cards everyday.

[Nikkaszal]

Sure, these are pretty good cards. That's why you find them so often in Arena - they have decent enough statlines and effects to be worth picking. Many of these cards are go-to's for beginner decks. So why don't you see them in constructed?

(Also, not ALL of these cards are good. Some ACTUALLY are bad - Shadow Bolt for instance is overcosted and with the minion-only limitation that makes it strictly worse than other nukes like Darkbomb, Soulfire, Frostbolt, Smite etc. Assassin's Blade is a super expensive weapon that has no other effect on its own).

Two simple reasons:

1) They don't fit meta deck archetypes. You won't ever see ERF in an odd pally deck because it isn't aggressive enough, likewise Sword Of Justice is almost always an unrecoverable loss in tempo. Cruel Taskmaster doesn't do anything for the current breed of tanky late-game warriors - but WAS seen when aggro warrior decks were in power.

2) Other cards do what they do, but better. Look at good ol' Taz'dingo for example - years and years ago he was one of the best taunts in the game. He's still a top pick for absolute beginner level decks. But why would you use him now when Tar Creeper and Saronite Chain Gang are available? TC does exactly the same thing you want with the same EFFECTIVE stat line, for 1 mana cheaper PLUS an Elemental tag. SCG gives you an additional 1/1 worth of stats, and blocks two hits. Why would you play Stormforged Axe when you can play Likkim instead? Both would only ever be played in decks that utilise Overload, and Likkim gives you an extra attack on an easy condition to meet, that doesn't OL your crucial turn 3

[Twoddle]

(Also, not ALL of these cards are good. Some ACTUALLY are bad - Shadow Bolt for instance is overcosted and with the minion-only limitation that makes it strictly worse than other nukes like Darkbomb, Soulfire, Frostbolt, Smite etc. Assassin's Blade is a super expensive weapon that has no other effect on its own).

It might be overcosted as an isolated card but Shadow Bolt is a Warlock card and balanced as such. Also you can't say it's strictly worse than Darkbomb and Soulfire, Darkbomb is 2 mana and Soulfire discards a card.

[Nikkaszal]

It might be overcosted as an isolated card but Shadow Bolt is a Warlock card and balanced as such. Also you can't say it's strictly worse than Darkbomb and Soulfire, Darkbomb is 2 mana and Soulfire discards a card.

Shadow Bolt is underbudgeted straight up - 4 damage for 3 mana is literally JUST on par for damage per mana for nukes in the game, but has no secondary effect and cannot target face. It's strictly worse than Darkbomb because of this (with Darkbomb being the most vanilla of all nukes, 3 for 2 with no secondary effect), and MUCH worse than Soulfire because the discard effect is worth roughly 1 mana discount per card discarded.. Soulfire used to cost 0, which was bonkers, and it's still amazing at 1 because it's still undercosted.

Discard examples - Doomguard is statted like a 7mana minion (5/7 Charge). Discard 2 drops it's cost to 5.
Succubus is statted like a 3cost (4/3), discard 1 drops it to 2
Lakkari Felhound is statted like a 5.5 cost (3/8 is 5mana budget, the taunt is between 0.5-1 cost). Discard 2 drops it to 3. This minion is actually slightly undercosted.

[Twoddle]

It's strictly worse than Darkbomb because of this (with Darkbomb being the most vanilla of all nukes, 3 for 2 with no secondary effect)

Darkbomb might be a better card but going by the definition it's not strictly better because it's worse in one aspect, it does 3 damage not 4. ie. There are some situations where having a Shadow Bolt in your hand would be better.

Frostbolt is strictly better than Darkbomb because it is at least as good as Darkbomb in all situations. Fireball is strictly better than Mortal Strike, this is what I'm getting at.