The Curse Trials Finals Later Today! 11 AM PDT, Sigma's Analysis on Cards Being Removed in Standard - The Legendaries

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The Curse Trials Finals Later Today! 11 AM PDT - Don't Miss It!

Today is the final day of the $30,000 invitational tournament, The Curse Trials, presented by Team Archon. You can find some basic information below, discuss the tournament in our dedicated Curse Trials thread, and tune in to the livestream below to catch all the games.

  • Games start at 11 AM PST. 8 PM CET for those in Europe.
  • Matches are streamed on Twitch.tv/Amaz.
  • Kripparrian and Frodan will be casting.
  • HearthPwn will have the full deck lists of all the players once the tournament is over!

Sigma's Analysis on Cards Being Removed in Standard - The Legendaries

The following was written by Sigma, one of our Deck Architects and Guide Writers here on HearthPwn!

Hello guys, Sigma here, Legend player, Deck Architect and Guide Writer here, on Hearthpwn! I will do a short series of analysis on the most important Naxx and GvG which are being phased out with the Standard&Wild Formats coming out to try to maybe give you a better insight into what you should expect from these drastic changes, which decks will be influenced most and what are the potential cards that might be replacing them further on. The first 5 will be Naxx&GvG legendaries! Enjoy!

Introduction

Some time ago Blizzard published the news that some of us were waiting for a long time and news that some might find scary or confusing. In the matter of a day there were already a thousand questions raised by the community on how will this, which can be called one of the biggest changes and moves in Hearthstone history, actually influence us and the game itself.

In this article, as a deck architect and guide writer I will try to explain to you what this change means for the meta, no matter if you are playing Hearthstone more casually or if you are reaching high ranks in the Legend part of the ladder. I will divide this explanation into two major parts and each part will be connected to a card, and as taking all 150 cards into consideration would take days of analysis, I will mention the ones that have shaped the Meta ever since they came out. I will also start it off with the neutral cards and move on to class specific cards.

The two major parts which will hopefully cover most of the questions of the community will be:

  • Which decks were influenced most by this card being phased out?
  • Which cards can potentially replace these cards?

There was also mentioning that “more than 2 cards but less than 20” from the Classic/Basic set will be changed, but nobody still knows if it will be for better or worse for the current meta which means that some cards (yeah I’m looking at you Illidan Stormrage, get your stuff together!) might be able to replace some of these cards that are being phased out. There is also a possibility of some cards being introduced, to fill out the biggest gaps left by the phased out cards. So I will present to you what we currently have at our disposal. You can also see me discussing these changes live at www.twitch.tv/sigmasrb, www.facebook.com/sigmasrb or www.twitter.com/sigmasrb.

Naxxramas & Goblins Vs. Gnomes Legendaries

I will start from the cards that influenced the meta most all the way to those that weren’t meta-defining but were still around to have mattered.

Dr. Boom

The very card that shaped the meta coming to us from Area 52, called Dr. Balance by most of the Hearthstone Community, we are parting ways with the card that was giving us most value possible as a single card played on turn 7 – Dr. Boom. If some of you have never seen this card for some reason, it used to spawn 2 Boom Bots as a Battlecry, which could deal up to 8 damage in total upon death, which was seen by many as overpowered, and with a good reason.

Which decks will this change influence most?

The phasing out of Dr. Boom will influence a HUGE variety of decks, ranging from some Aggro decks, all the way to Fatigue decks! Some of the decks which were in the top tiers of constructed play are: Tempo Mage, Secret Paladin, Combo Druid, Zoo Lock, Reno Lock, Control Warrior, Control Priest, Midrange Zoo, Handlock and the list goes on..

Which cards can potentially replace it?

The effect of the card will be quite difficult to replace, as there is no card with a similar effect and with the same amount of immediate board impact. The decks which ran Dr. Boom will either have to curve their decks up, which means to replace the card with a card of a higher mana cost, or to curve them down, which means that the card will be a lower mana cost than 7. Some of the cards which are surely worth considering are:

any case, a card whose removal will be celebrated by many, and a card that will be missed by many as well, to whom it gave sudden and unexpected lethals and with that tiny moments of glory and success. I’ll miss dropping this guy after a Freeze Mage plays a Doomsayer while being on low HP with Iceblock on. *sudden ninjas cutting onions* …damn, what am I saying; you will be missed, dear friend!

Loatheb

Also known as the Slayer of Mages, Loatheb has been a staple in a lot of Midrange/Control decks. He gets the title from the potential he has against spell-heavy decks like Tempo Mage and Freeze Mage. Just find the right spot to drop him on after a Freeze Mage plays Alexstrasza and he’s bound to lose. A card that also saw solid play during the reign of the hunters as it prevented them from that feared lethal with Kill Command/Quick Shot and gave you some more space to get some solid damage to the opponent’s face.

Which decks will this change influence most?

Same as for Dr. Boom, a large variety of decks will be hit. Some examples are: Combo Druid, Midrange Zoo, Midrange Hunter, Warlock Reno, Reno Warrior, while it will also have a miss in Aggro decks like Zoolock, in which it served a solid purpose of preventing pesky priests from using their Holy Nova on our precious gnomes and demons.

Which cards can potentially replace it?

Even though the cards has an effect unique to the game and not seen in any other card. As the meta will probably be faster as there will be a rush of fast decks with the exception of the good old Freeze Mage and Handlock, the decks will most likely be forced to curve down if there are no good 5 mana replacements. 5 mana or not, some of the replacements would be:

A card that will probably be forgotten pretty quickly, but the miss will be felt when we just want to not let the opponent fire out a barrage of spells into our face, especially against freeze mages as there will probably be quite a lot more of them as the people will most likely turn to the good old decks after there are so many cards being phased out.

Mal'Ganis

Mal’Ganis, one of the nathrezim, send to delude the mind of King Arthas into joining the Scourge, has seen interesting times in the meta of Hearthstone, taking the biggest role in the Midrange Zoo as a super tempo swing after being pulled out by the Voidcaller. After that it has seen play in demon versions of the Handlock, later called Demonhand and after the release of Reno Jackson it was included in the demon versions of the Reno decks. I have had a lot of fun with this guy after making my version of all three of these decks (the midrange zoo being a lot more popular than the other ones).

Which decks will this change influence most?

As the card itself is limited to Gul’dan, the card was only to be seen in Warlock decks, but my, what decks they were! Midrange Zoos, Demonhands and Demon Renos will be missing this guy in their ranks, but he is one of the cards that will be able to find a replacement easily.

Which cards can potentially replace it?

Even though this one as most of the legendaries has a pretty unique effect, this one won’t be that difficult to replace. Either by throwing in one more heavy minion with a somewhat good impact on the board, it doesn’t really matter that much. Some cards that could potentially replace him are:

Of course that none of these will be able to replace him in a Midrange Zoo, maybe a Fearsome Doomguard for example but that one would only have good value if it was to be taken out of a Voidcaller, who will also get phased out, so the whole demon archtype, will unfortunately, fade away along with my most upvoted deck on Hearthpwn. Damn. /cry

Vol'jin

HERE GOES THE VOODOO… :’( Vol’jin, the first Shadow Hunter, one of my personal favourites from the World of Warcraft Lore, will also be departing with the formats. One of the rare wild cards from the priest arsenal, a great tool against any minion with a lot of HP, no matter if used in a control priest, dragon or a shadow priest of some sorts, for sure a card that managed to provide us with some crazy tempo swings in the past seasons.

Which decks will this change influence most?

Vol’jin, being another class legendary, only used in the priest decks of course, was the joker card in a lot of priest decks including but not limited to: Control Priest, Dragon Priest, Shadow Priest.

Which cards can potentially replace it?

As much as it was used by some decks and as much as some of the deck builders swore that the deck would not work without Vol’jin, there were plenty of decks which were as successful and yet still ran no Vol’jin in them, so I believe that even though he was a powerful tool to have in the Priest shed, was definitely not one that is not replaceable. Some of the cards that should be taken into consideration are:

  • Excavated Evil (5) for any kind of Control/Fatigue Priest, a risky tool but very useful if you don’t manage to set-up your board on time
  • A second Holy Nova (5) if you’re not running two already, but I believe it will not be used as much as Zoolocks and Paladins are getting hit with the formats pretty hard.
  • Anubisath Sentinel (5) for Control Decks.
  • Sylvanas Windrunner (6) (again) as she fits most of these control kinds of deck types.

From all of the boring cards that Priest has in the arsenal, we are losing one of the fun ones boys. I am pretty sure that good ol’ Blizz will make it up to us for it though with another fun card. All in all, I will miss this card, but unless you are a fan of the chieftain of the Darkspear Tribe, you will most likely forget this card ever existed pretty quickly.

Kel'Thuzad

One of the cards that, after being played, would make the opponent go “OH COME ON MAN!” was the good ol’ K to the T. One of the most annoying cards that you could see in some of the most annoying druids that existed (besides the Mill Druids of course, there is a special place in hell for those), the taunt druid. You know, those druids that would drop Sludge Belchers or a Druid of the Claw, then drop this guy and kill those taunts off, just to make more taunts? Yeah, that deck.

Which decks will this change influence most?

Even though he is not that present in the meta right now, I believe we had some pretty crazy times for me to leave him out of the hall of fame of the good Naxx&GVG legendaries that we had fun with, but without him it will for sure be a tiny bit more difficult to make any Taunt decks, like Taunt Paladin and Taunt Druid, but also some control decks had a decent use out of him, like Control Warrior.

Which cards can potentially replace it?

The effect is definitely one of the most unique one this game has ever seen, and one of the most annoying ones too (if you’re facing him of course), but it can be successfully replaced by a lot of good value late game cards which would be very similar to the cards that can replace Mal’Ganis, perhaps with the addition of Arch-Thief Rafaam, as these taunt decks allow you to have as much space as possible to establish your late game, if you manage to reach it of course. Buahahah.

Conclusion

We are for sure going to be losing a lot of awesome lore characters, which is a really big shame, but as I mentioned before, I hope that Blizzard will either include them somehow else again in the game, or get us good legendary replacements that will maybe be even more interesting than these which are getting phased out.

On the general note, something that I really love about this change, something that a lot of people might mind is that everything that we knew so far is changing. All kinds of archtypes that we are familiar with will become unplayable and the road to new kinds of decks will open, and even though I see that as a very brave and bold move by Blizzard, it might be something that will ricochet back twofold. I guess that time will tell!

Also, if you would like to get in touch with me directly or come check out my stream where I practise for my tournaments, or where I try to reach legend with all kinds of interesting and new decks, stop by at www.twitch.tv/sigmasrb or come say hello, or you know, “man your guide is very wrong!” at www.facebook.com/sigmasrb or www.twitter.com/sigmasrb. I also do all kinds of events like Hearthstone Trivia, Viewer Tournaments that have awesome rewards and many more! Some of the videos of my crazy plays can be found at www.youtube.com/sigmasrb!

So, my dear Hearthpwn readers, Sigma is back! I hope you enjoyed reading this short (or not as short) first part of the 7-part Series that I will be working on! Some of the other parts will take some Class-specific and neutral cards, be they from Naxxramas, GvG, common, rare or epic! There will be a part for each!

Cheers,
Sigma

Dusting Off Old Cards with Mike Donais

Quote from Mike Donais
Each time we introduce a new set of cards to Hearthstone, there may be a certain subset of cards that leaves the player wondering, “What deck would I use this card in?” While some players may be actively searching for certain cards to complete their deck, or the most popular card in the current meta, other players may be left wondering when opening packs – why are some of these cards created, if they’re not immediately viable or relevant to me?

There are a lot of different types of cards added to each set, each with their own unique flavor or ability. Sometimes we implement cards that follow certain themes that contribute to the overall flavor of the set itself. For example, Naxxramas had a handful of cards with the Deathrattle keyword, because the overall theme of Naxxramas was about undead lingering within Kel’thuzad’s mighty necropolis – minions can be dangerous even after death!

Sometimes cards won’t fall within those themes – we couldn’t make every card in Naxxramas have Deathrattle, or every card in The Grand Tournament have Inspire, but that doesn’t make them useless.  They just may not make it into your current deck, or have a place in the current meta. Maybe those cards are more aimed towards players still amassing their collections, or players that are looking to create those crazy off-the-wall decks that are fun to play, but may not win a lot. Each player is different when it comes to their enjoyment of Hearthstone – it’s not always about winning!

Sometimes, those old, unused cards come back in a fresh new light with a future content update. There are a few cards that have caused a resurgence in these “old cards”, and players are dusting off some of these unused cards in their collection to concoct new strategies and a wider variety of ways to play.

Reno Jackson is one good example of this. Not only does Reno introduce an entire new way to deck-build, but Mr. Jackson also helps pull a wider variety of cards into a player’s deck from their collected card pool. It’s not a drastic change in the value of older cards, but Reno does make utilizing a wide variety of cards in a single deck more appealing. It certainly makes sense that a legendary explorer such as Reno would be excellent at dusting off old artifacts…

Who brought back the use of rarely utilized Paladin secrets? “None of your business.”Mysterious Challenger brought Paladin secret back into the light with his unique Battlecry. Previously, Paladin secrets were rarely utilized in most Paladin decks, but Mysterious Challenger is a good example of a card that can have an immediate impact on bringing older cards back into the fray. Sometimes having a deck full of secrets doesn’t work out if you end up drawing a lot of them in your opening hand, but sometimes the Challenger comes riding into battle and makes a big, immediate impact on the game. From there, it becomes more of a puzzle for the opponent to decide how they are going to deal with the board.

The gentlemanly scholar Sir Finley Mrrgglton has demonstrated that even by changing something as simple as your Hero Power can create an entire new world of deck-building strategies that didn’t exist previously. Both Warriors and Shamans can adjust from having a more defensive or control-based playstyle to a more offensive one with the right Hero Power, while Hunters have more options of a control-based playstyle. Other classes can also benefit from different deck-building options with Finley, encouraging new cards to come out of “retirement”.

Looking at old cards in a whole new light is just one thing we want to continue doing in Hearthstone. Encouraging a wide variety of playstyles, creating cards that appeal to a wide variety of players, and creating cards that may have a resurgence of popularity in future sets keeps things interesting, and also helps to keep players thinking with the release of every piece of new content that is introduced to the game.

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