1163301:No, not when you look at the ally cards.
Compare
Vesh'ral to
Sha'lin Nightwind. Both common cards, both cost 3 resources. Yet Sha'lin has 1 ATK more than Vesh'ral. This seems to imply that Elusive is worth less than Ferocity.
Or look at
Moko Hunts-at-Dawn and
Braxxis the Sleeper. Both uncommon, both cost the same amount of resources, but again Braxxis who has Elusive has 1 ATK more than Moko who has Ferocity.
So unless you want to tell me that Upper Deck favors the Alliance it seems that they consider Elusive to be less powerful than Ferocity. Or why else would they give the Alliance allies who are otherwise completely identical to their Horde counterparts better stats?
If you look at these examples it becomes all the more clearer that the Alliance gets a much worse deal with Thunderhead Hippogryph than the Horde. To fit with the other allies the "Alliance version" of Thunderhead Hippogryph would have to have 1 ATK more than the "Horde version" of the Hippogryph.
You breakdown of allies illustrates the point that allies with Ferocity have a lower attack value than Elusive allies with the same cost. I believe that this has to do with a balance tweak because of the effect of Ferocity.
To compare:
Vesh'ral if he lives for only one turn he can deal 3 damage. Two turns = 6. Three turns = 9. Four turns = 12. Five Turns = 15.
Sha'lin Nightwind if she lives for only one turn she deals no damage. Two turns = 4 Three turns 8. Four Turns = 12.Five Turns = 16.
Now for:
Moko Hunts-at-Dawn at turn one, 5 damage. Two = 10. Three = 15. Four = 20. Five = 25. Six = 30.
Braxxis the Sleeper at turn one, 0 damage. Two 6. Three = 12. Four = 18. Five = 24. Six = 30.
Now the Hippogryph:
Ferocity version at turn one, 3 damage. Two = 6. Three = 9. Four = 12.
Elusive version at turn one, 0 damage. Two = 3. Three = 6. Four = 9.
So if the elusive ability gets the the to live one more turn then they're quite comprable (or even in the case of the 'gryph). In my experience playing the game (limited as it may be right now), elusive allies played late game can last for quite a few turns until your opponent can manufacture a solution for them.
What I'm trying to show is that while the stats are different, in realworld play the difference is not as wide as the numbers would leave you to believe. To me, out of the three cost allies, Sha'lin seems like a better card. Yet for the higher cost allies, It's a much closer choice for me.
Of course I'm ignoring tons of metagame variables here but I'm just trying to illustrate a point.
Thanks for chatting with me on this, I'm really liking the observations you're bringing up. Hopefully others will find this helpful when making deckbuilding decisions.
-Rob Schuster
45th at 2008 Worlds
Day 1 6-3
Day 2 4-2