In card games, sometimes the most underpowered cards find redemption. When looking at Hearthstone, one such card was Warsong Commander, a rarely played card from the Basic set that helped power Patron Warrior decks when that was easily the most frightening archetype on the competitive scene. Paladin secrets, a whole array of one-mana cards that rarely saw play, suddenly became powerful when combined with Mysterious Challenger. New cards can sometimes make some of the least played cards into staples of the most powerful decks.

With the introduction of Standard play, time has run out for the lesser lights from the Curse of Naxxramas and Goblins vs. Gnomes set to pen similar comeback stories. Since the Standard announcement, we've mostly focused on the strongest cards leaving competitive play -- cards such as Dr. Boom, Piloted Shredder, Mad Scientist and Sludge Belcher. But some of Blizzard's most entertaining but rarely played cards -- many of which are steeped in the World of Warcraft lore that has been a crucial staple of Hearthstone -- are also departing from the competitive scene. Some of these cards are overcosted. Some just never found a constructed deck that was a good home, or were just too difficult to enable. Let's give one last tribute to the coolest cards leaving play, before they depart for the Island of Misfit Toys (and the occasional Wild game played for nostalgia's sake).

Bolvar Fordragon

Blizzard

For those players familiar with World of Warcraft lore, seeing Bolvar Fordragon on a card was an exciting moment, as he played a crucial role in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. His card, a five-mana 1/7 that gained +1 Attack for every card that died while he was in your hand, saw little tournament play. Goblins vs. Gnomes was released on December 8th, 2014 and, according to the tournament deck database at Hearthstone Top Deck, last saw competitive play just three weeks later. There's no denying that, even if Bolvar was a bad card, he was certainly a cool card. Octavian 'Kripparrian' Morosan of Team SoloMid, a Hearthstone caster and the most watched Hearthstone player in the world, shared his opinion of Bolvar with ESPN.

This card is a powerhouse on paper, often reaching double-digit attack levels, and having the health to back it up as well. It was always overlooked because of the extremely poor draw potential, as it takes a few turns sitting in your hand to actually reach its potential. But the real issue has been the other cards that were launched with him. Naxxramas and GvG brought the Deathrattle zoo and aggro themes to Hearthstone, and Silence came back in order to attempt to counter some of these effects. The strongest all-around legendary was also released in GvG, Dr. Boom, which forced most midrange and control decks to run Big Game Hunter just to counter it. Both of these factors consequently made Bolvar unplayable, as he does not escape the tech choices of the decks sourced from this set. In a different time, Bolvar could have been an amazing and common addition to midrange Paladin decks everywhere, but instead his fame will only live on in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Gahz'rilla

Blizzard

A card that doubles its attack every time it took damage is a power effect. Gahz'rilla became a popular card to fool around with on fun videos -- if you could damage it three times on the board it became a crazy 48-attack card -- but a few problems kept it from ever seeing serious play, outside of the occasional Webspinner draw.

A seven-mana card typically has to have an immediate impact on the board to see play, and Hunter has limited resources to both get the Gahz'rilla to be usable immediately and to get the immediate damage on it to double its attack to 12. Further complicating its use was that successful Hunter archetypes, whether the Face Hunter or the slightly slower Midrange Hunter, simply didn't have time to use the card. Even assuming you could get Tundra Rhino to stick to the board, so that Gahz'rilla had Charge the next turn, you also had to assemble Gahz'rilla and a tool to damage it -- and most of the time, by the time you got all the pieces, the Hunter had already lost.

Wee Spellstopper

Blizzard

While Bolvar at least got experimented with in decks for a few weeks, Wee Spellstopper didn't even get that far, and was generally ignored from the start. The only card in the game to date with the ability to prevent other cards from being targeted, the Spellstopper never even found a niche as a defensive tech choice.

"This is one of those cards that I wish had worked in competitive play," explained Kacem 'Noxious' Khilaji of compLexity Gaming. "It just failed miserably because it wasn't good enough on tempo. The card was there to protect your stuff, but it's not protected itself, so once it goes way, everything else dies as well."

Blizzard

Anub'ar Ambusher and Dancing Swords

In a game in which board control is so important, cards with powerful stats but a crucial downside are a common feature found in decks. Early on in Hearthstone's history, King Mukla saw play in very aggressive decks, simply because getting a 5/5 card for three mana is worth giving your opponent +1/+1 Bananas -- because the intention was to kill the opponent before they ever got to make use of the buff cards. Deathlord, which put a card from your opponent's deck in play when it died, still saw play on-and-off simply because a 2/8 card with Taunt for three mana is a powerful tool against agro decks.

For Anub'ar Ambusher and Dancing Swords, the drawback turned out to be too much for what they brought to the table. While the Ambusher's deathrattle of sending another card back into your hand had potential synergy with certain Battlecry cards like Big Game Hunter, more often than not, the opponent, with first crack at killing it, got to choose the time to eliminate it -- frequently resulting in a loss of tempo. As for Dancing Swords, a 4/4 for three is nice, but giving your opponent a potential card in return for one more attack is typically a poor tradeoff, and the effect wasn't strong enough to see the Swords in mill decks.

Foe Reaper 4000

Blizzard

The Foe Reaper 4000 was one of my personal favorite unplayed cards in Naxxramas/GVG, both because of the powerful effect and, simply, the fact that it was essentially the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz turned into an angry, out-of-control robot. Who doesn't love angry robots? Chris 'ChanmanV' Chan, host of Value Town shares my passion for this murderous mech:

"If the Foe Reaper stays on the board for a turn, it's impossible to remove, simply because of how it can clear the board all by itself. But it was also so hard to play because there are so many good single-target removal cards in Hearthstone and removing it from the board is always a priority. It's always been a favorite of mine, because if you were able to get it to stick, it didn't matter if you were going up against Patron Warrior, Handlock, or Secret Paladin, it would likely clear the board."

Troggzor the Earthinator

Blizzard

Someone at Blizzard loves Homestar Runner, the internet series that created Trogdor the Burninator in 2003. Troggzor had an interesting effect, summoning a 3/5 Burly Rockjaw Trogg every time your opponent cast a spell. While the effect was similar to another defensive card, Loatheb -- a card that is also leaving the tournament meta, but has been a popular staple -- Troggzor only gave magic use long-term consequences rather than directly hindering it, as Loatheb did. One popular use of Loatheb was to hinder the Druid Force of Nature/Savage Roar combo for a turn, but Troggzor wouldn't stop it -- instead summoning two Burly Rockjaw Troggs in response, which didn't matter if you were already dead. While Hearthstone was (and remains) fairly light in seven-mana cards that you could just drop on a board, and Troggzor appeared to fit the bill, a better card released at the same time fulfilled that task even better: the much-reviled Dr. Boom.

Anima Golem

Blizzard

At six mana, a 9/9 card represents overwhelming power for its cost. But as you may have guessed, something that strong for that cheap has to come with a significant downside. In this case the drawback is that, at the end of each turn, if the Anima Golem is your only card on the board it has to be destroyed.

"That card looks like it should work in some circumstances," said Noxious. "But even with Dreadsteed, there's no dependable way to enable it. Because of the setup required to make it work, it could be a six mana 25/25, and it dies just as often. You never get to attack with it."

Sneed's Old Shredder

Blizzard

Sneed's, I will miss you most of all. Overcosted for its base stats, Sneed's Old Shredder was interesting because of the powerful Deathrattle, which summoned a random Legendary minion to takes its place after it died. Problem is, first you have to spend the eight mana to get an underpowered card on the board. Then you have to actually kill it and, only then, so long as it wasn't silenced, did you finally get that Deathrattle to trigger -- making it an incredibly slow card to wring value from. Getting a free Ragnaros or Archmage Antonidas is incredible, but if Nat Pagle or Lorewalker Cho popped from the Shredder, you were left cursing your opponent, Blizzard programmers, and the world that created you.

Sneed's saw some light play in tournaments after GvG release, but due to the drawbacks, its last competitive hurrah was in The Pinnacle 3 tournament, during which David 'Dog' Caero of Team Liquid and Jan 'Ek0p' Palys both included it in their decks -- but that was more than a year ago.

Do you have a personal favorite unplayable card leaving Standard? Let us know in the comments or on social media, and maybe take it into battle one last time on ladder before it is exiled to the Wild format.