The Journey to Un’Goro expansion is here, and already, the meta has been flooded with a host of new decks. Of course, just because there are a lot of new decks doesn’t mean they’ll all be viable.  In fact, there are a lot of decks that—once the meta settles—will be completely unplayable. As a result, there are a lot of cards that seem powerful now, but should not be crafted until the meta has a chance to stabilize.

 

The Caverns Below:

The Rogue Legendary Quest, The Caverns Below was one of the most underrated cards before the expansion launched. No one thought it was a good card (the term ‘worst Quest of Un’Goro’ was tossed around quite a bit) however, in the few weeks since the expansion launched, Quest Rogue has already become one of the most dominant decks.

Just because Quest Rogue is good, however, doesn’t mean it will stay good. Quest Rogue is very vulnerable to aggressive decks such as Pirate Warrior, which has survived the shift into the Year of the Mammoth. As time goes on, these decks will only get more refined, and Quest Rogue will have trouble keeping up.

As a result, The Caverns Below is a card that’s a bit dangerous to craft right now. It may keep its power level throughout the expansion, but for now, its 1600 dust cost makes it too much of a risk.

 

Spiritsinger Umbra:

A Legendary minion, Spritsinger Umbra is run in a lot of the Priest Deathrattle decks. Her effect (after you summon a minion, trigger its Deathrattle effect) is very powerful, and if left unchecked can singlehandedly win games. As a result, she shows up in nearly every Netdeck that contains powerful Deathrattles.

Despite being a very powerful card, however, Spiritsinger Umbra isn’t actually necessary in most of the decks that run her. While partnering her effect with cards such as Cairne Bloodhoof and Shifting Shade is powerful, it only serves as a win-more effect. There are very Deathrattle minions that affect enemy minions, and the few that do are relatively ineffective. The only card that would have really made a difference is Sylvanas Windrunner, but she left with the last Standard shift.

Because of this issue, Spiritsinger Umbra isn’t a ‘must-craft’ by any means, and should only be purchased by players with a lot of dust that they don’t know what to do with.

 

Ozruk:

A mighty Elemental, Ozruk is a great fit in many of the slower Elemental decks. Between Ozruk’s massive health and the Taunt keyword he carries, the Elemental is great at stopping late-game pushes.

Unfortunately, despite his power, Ozruk is very weak to hard removal (such as Execute or Shadow Word: Death) which completely ignore his massive health totals. As a result, Ozruk is unreliable, and completely unworthy of his 1600 dust cost.

 

Lyra the Sunshard:

The Priest Legendary, Lyra has received a lot of attention recently due to some impressive highlight clips, where the resources she generated singlehandedly won the games. Because of this, the card has been seeing a lot more play, and is becoming increasingly tempting as a crafting option.

Similarly to Spiritsinger Umbra, however, Lyra the Sunshard is a card that doesn’t need to be crafted. While her effect is powerful, and it can be game-changing, many times it won’t be. As a result, Lyra is just too unpredictable, so players who are tight on dust have no reason to craft her.

 

Lakkari Sacrifice/Clutchmother Zavas

With the exit of Renolock, the Warlock variant known as Discardlock has begun to make a resurgence. This archetype got a lot of support in Un’Goro, with both the Legendary Quest and the Class Legendary directly supporting the discard playstyle.

Despite the obvious synergies, however, Lakkari Sacrifice has been absent from nearly all Warlock decks, and Clutchmother Zavas is rarely seen as well. There are many reasons for this neglect—however, the biggest is that the cards simply don’t work well enough. Lakkari Sacrifice isn’t a powerful enough Quest Reward, and Clutchmother Zavas—while powerful—isn’t as strong as many Legendaries.

Because of these issues, the two new Warlock Legendaries just aren’t worth the dust it’d cost to craft them.

 

The Marsh Queen:

Once thought to be the best card coming out of the Journey to Un’Goro expansion, The Marsh Queen has instead turned out to be nothing but a great disappointment. The deck that needs to be made to complete The Marsh Queen is simply too inconsistent, with lots of tiny minions and very little card draw.

Consequently, The Marsh Queen is virtually unplayable at the moment, and is definitely not worth its 1600 dust cost.

 

Open the Waygate:

Yet another Quest, Open the Waygate is a difficult card to assess. When everything goes right, the card is possibly the most powerful card in the game—this scenario doesn’t happen too often, however, and most of the time, Open the Waygate ends up amounting to nothing more than a waste of one mana.

Thanks to this inconsistency, Open the Waygate isn’t currently worth crafting for new players. However, unlike many of the other cards on this list, Open the Waygate does have one thing going for it—the card is a lot of fun to play, and can instantly turn any game around.

As a result, Open the Waygate—while perhaps not the best card ever—is one of the most entertaining to play, which means that for players with lots of dust lying around, it’s the perfect card.

 

That’s all of the ‘Do Not Craft’ cards that have come out of this expansion. Once the meta has stabilized a bit, some of these cards (such as The Caverns Below) might actually be worth crafting. For now, however, things are just too uncertain, so it’s best to simply save your dust. Finally, while there are other bad cards in this expansion, they are mostly just Commons and Rares, which are fairly cheap and are unlikely to be an issue.