Source
r/hearthstone•
Dusce

What about cairne?

After watching Reckful's Video on the frontpage (Link to the Video) I asked myself "Why isn't Cairne played more often"

Yeah I know "Piloted Skygolem is better" but he gives you on average his 6/4 Body and 3,26/4,42 Deathrattle body, which would be an 9,26/8,42 body without Deathrattle on average.

Cairne gives you a 4/5 main Body and 4/5 Deathrattle (8/10 without Deathrattle). Also Piloted Sky Golem doesn't always give you a good body or usefull effects (6 always useful - I counted Taunts too!) And 16 situational (Think Dragonkin Sorcerer) out of 53 4 Drops

He can give you 7 good bodies (5/4's and 3/6's), 5 great bodies (5/5, 5/6) and 11 okay bodies (3/5's and 4/4's and Oasis Snapjaw) which is 9,4% chance on something great 13% chance on something good and 21% chance on something okayish.

(Meaning 22,4% Chance on something better then cairne, 21% on something like Cairne and 56,6% on something worse then Cairne)

Also in my opinion Cairne has a way higher Chance to give you something better then Sylvanas (Or even anything at all!), I bet that happend to all of you, trading of your Slyvanas into the 5/5 instead of the 7/5 just to get that 1/1 Paladin Token. The only classes i could see Sylvannas beeing way better are Priest (SW:D) and maybe Warlock (Shadowflame), both have the weakness to silence and Slyvanas has 1 more Attack, but does that justify Cairne beeing worse for the chance to get something really good?

May I hear your opinions on it! (I did this all because i'm think of crafting Cairne to replace Sylvannas)

Posted May 4, 2015, 10:51 AM UTC

025
precociousapprentice•

The main reason that I've heard that people prefer the Sky Golem is that it provides more pressure than Cairne does, in two ways:

  • It has 50% higher attack, so puts the opponent on a bigger timer, and can punch above what weight Cairne can. For trading, Cairne has to be supplemented with a ping to take out 5 health minions, whereas Sky Golems can take out 6 health minions; Sky Golem punches a higher weight.
  • It's unpredictable. Cairne is a known quantity. Your opponent knows if they spend resources on him what they will get out of it. They don't have the same certainty with the Sky Golem, so it's to their incentive to kill it on their turn so they have more options to deal with what comes out. If you trade with it on your turn, you have the opportunity to first react to what comes out. (Same reason why Blingtron favours the person who plays it - they have the first option on how to deal with what happens to the board state.)
2
DusceOP•

Yeah but as my "research" showed that the unpredictablity of Piloted Sky Golem can back fire (one of the good effects was Summoning portal 0/4). I basically stoped playing them because i got 1/7 taunts, Twilight Drakes, etc out of it. While it's worse for the opponent (and 4 health which is easier dealt then 5 so it's more durable, but really how often do you need on ladder more then 4 attack + ping to kill something)

On a note, i talk about Ladder. so you can basically run in the situation where a piloted Shredder deals with your Sky Golem you get a 1/7 taunt and they get Standart 3/2 2/3 2 drop. If i'm not mistaken, Shredder is so good because of the quality of 2 Drops. And most 4 drops have battlecries. Which won't happen and many are highly situational (You're paladin and get Voidcaller which is for you a vanilla 3/4).

But i see the point why you would prefer Sky Golem over Cairne, but Sylvannas? just 25% Higher attack and an way more unpredictable effect!

1
precociousapprentice•

Of course it can backfire. You don't play it because it's consistent. You're not after consistency. You're after winning more than you lose, than you win more than you lose if you play a different card. Yeti is more consistent than Shredder, but Shredder is, on average, better. You take the good with the bad. Sometimes you get Pit Lord, sometimes you get Jeeves.

I never said you take Sky Golem over Sylvannas.

2
DusceOP•

Talking about cairne over sylvanas and yeah . You play shredder because he is better then any 4 drop. But piloted shredder hasnt the value shredder has. And in my opinion he is only better then cairne because he has 6 attack (i cannt think of any other 6 drop - expect both dragons we just got- who have 6 attack)

Ninja edit: Also i just want to understand why cairne is bad, if we look on "bad decks/classes" they are all unrelaible i hope my english is understandable!

1
precociousapprentice•

There are 16 6-drops that have 6 or higher attack, 7 of which are class-specific.

Generally, if you're playing control, and you have to pick between Cairne or Sylvannas, you pick Sylvannas. If you're playing Mid-range and you're not a mech deck, you pick Sylvannas. If you're playing an aggro deck and you for some reason want to choose between Sky Golem and Sylvannas, you want to rethink your deck choices and mana curve, and then if you still want a 6 drop, you might pick the Sky Golem.

2
AbsoluteKira•

Some people would say that cairne is too weak, with a four attack , and some would say he's only good for control but most people play aggro and stuff. But yeah I actually like cairne though he should only be put down on s board where you are the one with more minions or you're the one ahead in controlling the board

1
DusceOP•

I think if you have an empty board, Cairne is better then Sylvannas (even tho he just has 4 attack he soaks unsilenced 10 damage while sylvannas worst case just 6) which can get pretty handy later on.

And just slightly inferior to Piloted Sky Golem. I'd try him out myself but 1600 Dust is a lot.

1
AbsoluteKira•

I actually don't mind cairne , I would play him but I don't have it so yeah

1
DusceOP•

Exactly like me :'D

1
AbsoluteKira•

there are cards i wouldnt mind using, to the point where i have leeroy in my warlock deck

1
master_bungle•

If I recall correctly, Sludge Belcher was one of the biggest reasons Cairne stopped being played. The 4 attack just wasn't enough to get through cards like Sludge Belcher quickly, and for the mana cost it doesn't do enough the turn it comes out.

Basically Cairne is just seen as a little bit too slow these days. Not a bad card at all though.

1