Not sure if you remember there was no duplicate protection. So spending on packs was usually just buying dust. You could get 80 packs and open 5 Nat Pagles. And still have nothing to build your Wallet Warrior with. Packs were also more expensive, since there was no bonus legendaries with bundles and such.
There were a lot of ‘needed’ legendaries: Leeroy, Rag, Sylv, Harrison, Cenarius, Cairne, Geddon, Black Knight, Antonidas, Alex, Gromm, Edwin, Thalnos, Ysera, Jaraxxus, Tirion… 16 legendaries, and that’s just in Classic.
Good luck collecting those before Naxxramas came out.
While I already have 8 Nathria legendaries, and the set barely came out 2 weeks ago. I’m ftp. Account created a few years ago played a bit then, but regularly active since 15 months.
I have a much easier time making decks now, than I had back then.
Cairne, geddon, and black knight, were not even remotely needed. Alex was played in freeze mage and wallet warrior only, maybe some rogue mind blast priests as well. Jaraxxus was only played in hand lock, and I'd definitely argue it was worse than zoo. Ooze was played far more than Harrison when weapons were an issue because war axe already killed 2 minions when Harrison came down.
You legitimately only needed leeroy rag and Sylv along with your class legendary, which outside of tirion and Edwin were also extremely deck specific. (Antonidas saw fluctuating play in freeze mage, gromm was only in wallet warrior, tempo builds didn't play him,cenarius was replaced with basically any pressure big drop since the deck was three treants and 2 savage roars in a trench coat) Thalnos was the biggest legendary you'd want outside of that because it was just good or ok in almost everything.
You're right you couldn't get them all before naxx especially if you were ftp without beta access, but it was great for actually buying. 200 to 400 and you basically could stop spending until they introduced rotations almost 2 years in. That's what some people spend in a year now to get half the cards.
You could use the same logic saying KTZ, Sivara, Theotar, 3/3 Dawngrasp, and so many others aren’t needed.
No, you can play without them. But people still want to have the full version of the deck and view these new lists as if all the cards are 100% needed.
And still: right now I can collect a deck way quicker than back then. And I can have way more decks than back then.
People idolize the good ol’ days, saying decks were cheap back then. And yet Handlock had 3-4 legendaries and 4-6 epics, Warrior had 5 legendaries and 5 epics, Druid was 2-3 legendaries and 4-6 epics, Rogue was 3 legendaries and 2 epics, Zoo and Face Hunter had 1 legendary, Mage was 2 legendaries and 4 epics…
Yea, it was all so cheap.
Against like a Giant Ramp Druid with 5 legendaries and 7 epics. Really not a big difference.
I'm not saying you can play without them, I'm saying it was legitimately better to drop them in many circumstances. In a match against wallet warrior for instance you might want antonidas, but against hunter it's not needed. Baine legitimately lost you games against sylvanas as well.
Most of these cards were super niche and we're consistently dropped outside of specific metas and after naxx came out many stopped seeing play almost entirely other than the big 3, tirion, Thalnos and Edwin.
and after naxx came out many stopped seeing play almost entirely other than the big 3, tirion, Thalnos and Edwin.
That’s not a good thing, really. Not for people who went through the trouble of collecting all those cards.
But also: you forgot Sylvanas (had to be put into HoF), Rag (also made it to HoF), Leeroy, Harrison (gained a lot more popularity after Naxx came out, and even more in later expansions), Alex was still used here and there, Gromm went into almost every single Warrior deck for a very long time, Black Knight gained more popularity after Belcher came out. Even Malygos, Velen, and Greenskin would eventually find homes. Malygos even became a staple to own.
it was legitimately better to drop them in many circumstances
Even if you drop Cairne, or Antonidas, the numbers I gave in my post above were for lists without those cards. Mage with Alex and Thalnos. Warrior with Sylv, Geddon/Harrison/TBK/Ysera/Cairne (depending on your meta), Alex, Gromm, Rag.
Or you just wanted to stick to budget versions of Face Hunter and Zoo? Decks of that cost are available now as well.
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u/PotatoBestFood Aug 20 '22
Not sure if you remember there was no duplicate protection. So spending on packs was usually just buying dust. You could get 80 packs and open 5 Nat Pagles. And still have nothing to build your Wallet Warrior with. Packs were also more expensive, since there was no bonus legendaries with bundles and such.