Hearthstone Curse of Naxxramas Cards Analysis, Best and Worst Naxxramas Cards!

So Curse of Naxxramas ended some time ago and players had a lot of time in their hands to try out all the new cards that were released. The meta shifted considerably and became much slower thanks to cards like Loatheb and Sludge Belcher. Most of the other cards also found their places in top tier decks while some of them were completely left out. Let's take a look at the best and worst cards that were released in Curse of Naxxramas.

Please bear in mind that the following analysis reflects my own personal opinions and experiences. There are certain cards you might like more which aren't included in this list, this is completely natural. I am writing my analysis from my own experiences with these cards and a lot of tournaments I watch almost every single day.

Best Naxxramas Cards (Neutral)

#1 Best Naxxramas Card - Loatheb

Loatheb was initially designed to counter Miracle Rogues, However, Loatheb found its way into almost any deck from mid-range Hunter to any control decks due to its incredible utility and high stats. While it can be used to protect your board presence, it can also be used to give you more time to turn the game around. For example if you are on 14 health and afraid of Savage Roar and Force of Nature Combo, Loatheb will protect you for the next turn. It can also ensure your win if you use it at the right time when you have full board and will have lethal next turn because most likely your opponent won't be able to AoE clear to save themselves.

#2 Best Naxxramas Card - Sludge Belcher

Sludge Belcher is the dream card for any control decks out there. As a 3/5 body for 5 mana might not look good enough at first as Sen'jin cost 4 and it has the same stats. The main advantage of Sludge Belcher lies in its deathrattle effect, making it resistant to AoE as it will leave a 1/2 body with Taunt when it dies which is a great counter to any aggro decks. So usually at least 2 or sometimes even 3 minions have to trade for only 1 Sludge Belcher, giving you a significant card advantage while completely breaking your opponent's tempo. Sadly, it's very prone to Priests' Shadow Madness spell and if they use it correctly, the priest will end up stealing your 1/2 Taunt because the tokens summoned by Deathrattle will stay on the Priests' board.

#3 Best Naxxramas Card - Haunted Creeper

This was actually a close call between Haunted Creeper, Undertaker and Spectral Knight. Maybe Nerubian Egg too but it specifically needs an activator so it is slightly disadvantaged. Haunted Creeper is basically a 2 mana version of the very annoying Harvest Golem with lower stats. It is a very sticky minion in that even if you AoE or kill it in another way, it will still summon 2x 1-1 spiders, actually increasing the damage of the minion itself. It synergises very well with cards like Houndmaster, Kill Command and Defender of Argus. However, Hunters don't forget that the Spectral Spiders that spawn from a dead Haunted Creeper are NOT BEASTS! Shamans can also make great use of the tokens thanks to their Flametongue Totem.

Worst Naxxramas Cards (Neutral)

#1 Worst Naxxramas Card - Maexxna

Maexxna as a 2/8 body seems strong at first especially with the venom effect that will kill off any minion. The card can synergise very well wih Hunters and Houndmaster; however, the main problem with Maexxna is her 6 mana cost. If the card cost about 4 or maybe 5, we might have seen it replacing Snapjaw in some mid-range Hunter decks but in her current state Maexxna is incredibly slow to the point of being completely useless. Not to mention it is very prone to getting stolen with a Cabal Shadow Priest. Don't forget that the current meta has a lot of Priests. Nonetheless, however the meta may be; this card is too expensive to make use of. 

#2 Worst Naxxramas Card - Dancing Swords

I tried out Dancing Swords on my Zoo Warlock for a couple of weeks. It usually helped my opponent more than it helped me so I decided to take it out of the deck. 4/4 for 3 mana is surely mana efficient; however, it's the deathrattle that might hurt you. Dancing Swords obviously has no place in control decks and as an aggro deck you should avoid giving your opponent free cards as they might get closer to a card that will clear your board so I don't find this card particularly useful in any type of deck I can think of.





#3 Worst Naxxramas Card - Deathlord

Stats and mana wise Deathlord is surely one of the best cards out there. 3 mana for a 2/8 body? Count me in! However, just like any other Naxxramas cards, the deathrattle effect can really help you or it can completely ruin your game which makes the risk not worth it in my opinion. Especially in a meta being dominated by control decks consisting of a lot of valuable legendaries, I don't think any one of you out there would want to face a Ysera or a Ragnaros on turn 4 or 5... Yea, it can also help you by deactivating Battlecry effects (Ancient of War maybe?) but is it really worth it? If you trust your RNG, Deathlord is best used in Priest, Aggro Paladin or Zoo decks. Other than that I wouldn't recommend it in any other deck.

Best Naxxramas Class Cards

#1 Dark Cultist (Priest)

Dark Cultist is my absolute favourite class card from Naxxramas. 3/4 body for 3 mana is incredible, not to mention it will also buff another minion with 3 Health when he dies. 4 Health makes it resistant to any cheap removals like Fiery War Axe, Lightning Bolt, Rockbiter Weapon etc. 3 attack is also just as amazing! So even if you don't end up buffing a minion, it will surely trade with a lot of early minions or bait out a removal from your opponent. Priests certainly needed more minions to develop their board presence and they got just that! Its deathrattle will also ruin your opponent's plan because they will want to kill other minions first just to avoid buffing their health.

#2 Death's Bite (Warrior)

Control Warrior is my favourite deck to play with and we really needed a weapon for mid-game where could deal with 4 health minions, like the Dark Cultist above for example. Fiery War Axe is only useful for early game and Control Decks don't have space for Arcanite Reaper. So Death's Bite was a very welcome addition to our weapons arsenal. It helps us to protect our minions even more and get maximum value from certain minions thanks to its deathrattle. Deathrattle of Death's Bite can; enrage your Grommash, activate Execute, draw cards from Acolyte of Pain, gain armour from Armorsmith. There is no limit to what this baby can do if you time it right! From an aggro Warrior standpoint, it can also enrage minions like Berserkers. Thus, Death's Bite effectively replaced Whirlwind in a lot of Warrior decks and added 16 more damage output by doing so! Simply put, no matter what type of Warrior you play, Death's Bite is a gem!

#3 Webspinner (Hunter)

Webspinner is still a controversial card due to its randomness. But the way I see it, it gives you a card advantage by replacing itself. It can also replace itself with some amazing beasts like Savannah Highmane. Who wouldn't want x3 Highmanes right? You can also get other beasts like King Mukla or even The Beast. King Krush is also among the cards you can get. Of course it can also give you completely useless cards like Captain's Parrot or Angry Chicken but don't forget that these cards could be used to get maximum value out of your Kill Command. I'd also like to say that they could get you more card draw but after Starving Buzzard nerf, I just don't see it happening.

Worst Naxxramas Class Cards

#1 Poison Seeds (Druid)

Wow, Poison Seeds is so bad that I don't even know what to say about it. Imagine facing Zoo, which you will as they are quite abundant. Do you really want to turn their 3/2, 3/2, 1/3, 1/2 minions into 2/2? You can't even pair it up with Swipe as you would need spellpower. The cost of this card is too high as well so you can only pair it up with Starfall which costs 6; or Kobold/ Thalnos with Swipe to reset the board of your opponent. So for 10 mana, yes you can get a board clear but you won't be able to do anything else. The only scenario in which this card can even remotely come close to being useful is when you are facing a Ysera and maybe another legendary at the same time. It could be anything from Sylvanas, Cairne to Ragnaros. Well, if you give your opponent the opportunity to have Ysera, Ragnaros, Cairne all alive at the same time, you are doing something wrong anyway so this card won't save you. It's also a card you will never use if you have board control so no matter what scenario my imagination could ever allow me to come up with; the bottom line is that this is a completely useless card.

#2 Anub'ar Ambusher (Rogue)

Anub'ar Ambusher definitely has great stats for its mana. However, no matter what type of Rogue you want to play with (it's already too useless for Miracle anyway), you will want to have minions on board so your opponent will kill this minion just to set you back a turn. In the end, here we are faced with another Naxxramas card where the deathrattle effect could really hurt more than help us and if a card hurts more than it helps, why would you even include it in your deck?

#3 Voidcaller (Warlock)

I was pretty excited about this card when I first saw it. But when I got to finally trying it out; apart from being costly (same stats with Dark Cultist but costs 1 more mana), its deathrattle is also too situational as it requires you to have a demon in your hand. Of course it is a dream to get a free Doomguard without 2 cards discard penalty but most Warlocks are already good at doing that without discards anyway. Sure, it did allow some gimmicky Demon Warlock decks to emerge; however, while these decks could very well be entertaining to play with, they weren't stable enough to progress in ladder. 

So here is my list. There are some cards I haven't listed here that I also play frequently with and enjoy quite a lot but unfortunately for them they didn't make the final cut. Cards like Undertaker, Spectral Knight, Nerubian Egg and Kel'Thuzad are among my other favourite Naxxramas cards but the list was too short to add them as well.

While I won't share all my thoughts on these cards, I did want to give them credit anyway as this post isn't intended to be an analysis of all the cards that were released and believe me, choosing a card for an intended slot was extremely difficult as there are a lot of really good candidates for it. The competition was fierce for sure! I am still unsure whether I made a mistake rating Haunted Creeper as my third best instead of Undertaker. That's how good these cards are!

Please feel free to share your own most/least favourite cards from Curse of Naxxramas. Some of the cards I listed here as "worst" could very well be working in some decks you use, so I'd love to hear you out.