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[Criptfeind]

Well, in my view, tempo is about your board position. And tempo decks are also about your board position. You give up other advantages (mostly card advantage) for that board position or tempo. Cards that give up in other categories in exchange for tempo are what I'd call tempo cards. C'thun cards are the opposite of that, they give up current board position (you know, relative to another playable card of the same mana) in exchange for a benefit in the future. Flamewalker is a key tempo card because it lets you play a lot of very low cost spells to establish a strong tempo position.

Flamewreathed is tempo because it's a high amount of immediate board position for it's cost. the C'thun cards are pretty much all mediocre board position for their cost (with a few exceptions)

Edit: And, of course, to be a tempo card I'd sorta have to tautologically say it'd have to work in a deck where the general idea is about tempo. One could say C'thun is a tempo card under what I said previously in this post, dropping a 20/20 C'thun for 10 mana is a pretty tempo play. However, to get to that point you need a low tempo deck, and the high mana cost often introduces a tempo killing opportunity cost to having it in your deck, IE: whenever you hold it in your hand without being able to play it. This is also the sorta general reasoning why I wouldn't call other high tempo high mana cost cards tempo, at least generally. Although certainly the line can be blurry. *cough* doctor boom *cough*

[Arx]

FF is an exception though because of its incredible statline.

And I'd say it's a bit of both - you do want to threaten, but you also want to have efficient answers. Because obviously you want to be able to do both of those things.

[Criptfeind]

Cards don't necessarily have to have an immediate impact or high stats to be tempo (although it sure helps) but rather that they, for their cost, are good at establishing a powerful board. And furthermore in a deck about it, can do it early. Example, manawrym or tunnel trog. not immediate and not high stats, but their abilities means that when you place them on the board when an opponent can't remove it you've shifted the board state to a position where you're dominant. You have something that they have to answer, probably for a higher mana cost, or suffer massive tempo loss as your one drop takes down their higher mana cards as they play them or get hit in the face for a lot if they don't.

[wereboar]

You give up other advantages (mostly card advantage) for that board position or tempo.

Not necessarily. Mech mage was a very strong tempo deck and you just played cards on curve. Mostly minions. Who mostly did not immediately do something.

Cards that give up in other categories in exchange for tempo are what I'd call tempo cards.

Simply incorrect. Which category did piloted shredder or Dr. Boom gave up in?

C'thun cards are the opposite of that, they give up current board position (you know, relative to another playable card of the same mana) in exchange for a benefit in the future. Flamewalker is a key tempo card because it lets you play a lot of very low cost spells to establish a strong tempo position.

Many C'thun cards have decent tempo because either of good statline or special effects.
And once again, flamewaker tempo relied on spells for tempo. This is not how tempo always works. Look at warlock zoo or tempo paladin.

FF is an exception though because of its incredible statline.

It's not an exception. Getting most bang for you buck is the definition of tempo.

[Criptfeind]

Mech mage cards were generally low manacost, and they cheated out tempo using the mech warper. Piloted shredder and dr. boom were op. And, yeah, I wouldn't call the specifically tempo cards, just good strong cards.

Many C'thun cards have decent tempo because either of good statline or special effects.

There's only two C'thun cards I'd say fit this catagory. Unsurprisingly, they are the two that I've seen played in decks without C'thun. Cult Sorcerer, which, yes, I'd call an acceptable tempo card, or at least a card that fits in tempo decks. And dark Arakkoa, which I wouldn't call a tempo card simply because it's high mana cost prohibits it from taking the board control quickly. Otherwise, no. I don't think any of the other C'thun cards are actually good on their own. Often they are like... Kinda playable on their own? But not high tempo. Not good.

Flamewaker makes tempo from many small spells. Zoo makes tempo from minion synergies and the fact that they can go extreme with the low mana cost cards because of their hero power. Tempo paladin.... Well, it's a pretty aggro deck to call tempo, but, same idea as warlock, lots of tiny overwhelming cards and insane amounts of card draw. Where's C'thun getting equivalent tempo as any of these decks? The answer is simply that it's not generally. like, a C'thun deck might get lucky trades and draws and stuff and keep up, but that's not the point of the deck, and furthermore I'd have to stay that's not an average result.

Simply put, all these cards and decks you're using as examples have something the C'thun cards don't. Immediate high board impact for their cost.

[wereboar]

Okay, I checked hearthpwn and they call this deck tempo. StrifeCro played a very similar deck and also called it tempo.
You people are just pulling my leg.

[Criptfeind]

Well, yeah. I've said twice now this is probably just an issue of definitions and opinions. It's not impossible for people to use the same words for different things, oh well.

[Wiles]

Would anyone have advice for someone who wants to try and make the push to legend for the first time?

I've switched from using slower decks to faster ones because it seems in the long run that even if my win rate is a bit lower I still climb faster. I've been piloting my own hunter deck, but I have stalled out at rank 8. So instead I've switched to trying some net decks out but I haven't really found one that is helping me climb yet.

[wereboar]

Zoolock still seems fairly consistent.

[Darkmere]

Serious Question:

So I recently got a golden Captain Greenskin. I want to put it towards something that's less complete garbage. I don't have enough dust to really make a superproleetuberpwnooblol deck for any class, so what's my options for generic legendaries that will be useful to more than 1 deck?

I have all of League of Explorers, BRM wing 1, and (Al'akir, Ragnaros Lightlord for class specifics). And of course C'thun. I'd consider Vek'lor but I'm already getting pretty sick of the C'thun gimmick, despite that fact that those are the only good-for-most cards I actually have a set of. yay.

People say Sylvanas all the time, but I have never, ever seen her ability get used. death trade or hard removal erryday.

Non-serious question:
What's the uberleetpwnsawuceprotip master's way of "just use yer skill bro" when your opponents just keep getting the perfect on-curve counters to everything you have, 5 games in a row? Coz I get that a lot.

[Criptfeind]

Unfortunately (or fortunately) there's no longer a doctor boom style card where you can safely craft it and put it into almost every deck for a fairly safe power boost. I'd say your best best is just to hold onto captain green skin until you save up enough to build a deck you want with the dust you have, whether that means you dust him to make a legendary, or rares, or epics, or even a common.

If you really want to make a legendary though, Sylvanas is, like you mentioned top of the list, but she's generally good only in very heavy control decks that are quite expensive. There's also leeroy jenkins, who is sometimes used in faster decks, right now some zoos run him, and sometimes aggro does (although not currently). Also twin emperor Vek'lor is probably the easiest to make a deck that works with, but you've already said you're getting tired of C'thun. So, not really any good answers.

If you really really specifically like a class there's some cards like Tirion that are usable in almost every deck of that class I guess, but then you'd be tied to that class.

[wereboar]

Serious Question:

Sylvanas is the best choice hands down.
1. It is the most used legendary across all classes.
2. It has tremendous independent value and never lost relevance with all previous meta changes.
3. It's a basic set legendary so it will never phase out of Standard.

Non-serious question:

Play OTK decks obviously.

[Leafsnail]

Sylvanas doesn't necessarily have to go off to be amazing. Often the reason it doesn't go off is that your opponent was forced to make an awful double or triple trade into it. Some of the combos with it (eg Shield Slam, Shadow Word: Death) can also just instantly win the game if you steal a good target like Ragnaros. She's definitely the most played legendary right now and can be fitted into most non-aggro/combo decks.

Speaking of which, Ragnaros is another very good craft. It's an extremely powerful card that fits into any deck that can reasonably play an 8 mana minion.

[Wiles]

Serious Question:

So I recently got a golden Captain Greenskin. I want to put it towards something that's less complete garbage. I don't have enough dust to really make a superproleetuberpwnooblol deck for any class, so what's my options for generic legendaries that will be useful to more than 1 deck?

People say Sylvanas all the time, but I have never, ever seen her ability get used. death trade or hard removal erryday.

I would probably recommend crafting the classic legendaries you want first since they aren't going to be phased out.

I do think Sylvanas would be my number one pick. She doesn't always get to pull off an amazing minion steal but even if she dies she usually has had a positive impact on the board in your favour. She forces your opponent to have an answer and if they don't have an answer they are forced to play sub-optimally.

My second pick would probably be Ragnaros the Firelord. He is another minion that forces your opponent to react immediately. He does kinda suck against shamans which are popular right now though. Their boards are usually full of low value minions which will tank his fireballs.

Another good pick is Leeroy Jenkins although I think he is a bit more niche. He is a strong finisher in decks such as zoo lock or miracle rogue. I've been playing pirate warrior lately and he is a great card to add to the deck to close out the game.

Those are probably the neutral legendaries I run into the most. Other honourable mentions might be Ysera (might be a bit too slow in the current meta though) or Bloodmage Thalnos.

If you don't mind crafting a class legendary then you might want to look at Tirion. He is probably the best class legendary in the game and fits into a lot of Paladin (and priest ) decks. You mentioned you have Ragnaros the Lightlord so you could run a control paladin deck with those two legendaries. It might be worth noting that paladin isn't the strongest class right now but it is definitely playable.

edit: looks like other people answered while I was writing this out, so I'm probably repeating a lot of what has already been said

[Darkmere]

Thanks for the replies. I'll take a look at what I've got (and I actually have most of the current shaman meta...) and see if anything sticks out to me.