Odds and Evens - New Legendary Minions Encourage Creativity in Witchwood
Twelve cards from the looming Witchwood expansion have made clear Blizzard’s intention to offer a fundamentally new way to build decks and think about board interaction.
New keyword mechanics like Rush and Echo promise an array of interaction possibilities, while two powerful legendary minions of those revealed boast the ability to alter the nature of a player’s hero power throughout the entire game.
Of course, a mere 12 cards tells us little about what Hearthstone will play like a month from now. The slow-drip of new cards always tantalizes, but not since the introduction of Quests have so few cards given us so much to think about. Even just Genn Greymane and Baku the Mooneater give us plenty to puzzle over.
The metagame has been prodded in various directions in the past — think Quests, Death Knights, and Old Gods — and Genn Graymane and Baku the Mooneater seem to be the focal cards in charge of steering the Witchwood metagame as the Old Gods retire to Wild.
Less like N'Zoth, the Corruptor and more like Reno Jackson — which introduced the concept of one-of decks and gave way to Renolock — Genn and Baku create a deck-building puzzle for the Hearthstone hivemind to solve. They reframe how collections are perceived. Through Baku and Genn, Blizzard asks players to think about decks in terms of even and odd-mana collections — rewarding you for an odd-cost deck with an upgraded hero power or with a 1-cost hero power for an even-cost deck. If the hero power change proves powerful enough in the Witchwood meta despite the sacrifices, even and odd cost parameter could be a dominant context in which we consider cards going forward. For a refresher, here are all the upgraded hero powers those who plan to build decks around Baku the Mooneater will be able to take advantage of:
- Druid's Dire Shapeshift - Gain 2 armor and 2 attack instead of 1 armor and 1 attack.
- Hunter's Ballista Shot - Deals 3 damage instead of 2.
- Mage's Fireblast Rank 2 - Deals 2 damage instead of 1.
- Paladin's The Silver Hand - Summons an additional Silver Hand Recruit.
- Priest's Heal - Heals 4 damage instead of the standard 2.
- Rogue's Poisoned Daggers - Equip a 2/2 dagger instead of 1/1 dagger.
- Shaman's Totemic Slam -Allows player to summon a totem of their choice rather than a random one.
- Warlock's Soul Tap -Draw a card without suffering 2 damage.
- Warrior's Tank Up! - Gain 4 armor instead of the standard 2.
The significance of their "Start of Game" keyword cannot be overstated. While Reno Jackson and Prince Keleseth had similar requirements to Genn Greymane and Baku the Mooneater, the effects of the latter don’t suffer from the draw RNG that plagued the former and made them two of the most polarizing cards in Hearthstone history.
Mastering Rush and Echo
In an interview with PC Gamer, we learned from designer Iksar that, beyond the cards in the reveal video, there are no others to be unveiled with Start of Game effects or even/odd parameters. So some measure of theorycrafting is possible, but you would do well to leave some wiggle room for forthcoming cards — especially if the new Rush and Echo keywords pique your interest. We also gleaned from the interview that, as expected, that there will be quite a few of these in the new set.
Rush and Echo will be important to the new metagame, but without knowing many cards with those keywords yet, an Odd Taunt Warrior archetype seems good. Many of the best taunt cards fit in that shell — Tar Creeper, Alley Armorsmith, Stonehill Defender — while maintaining access to Shield Slam, Shield Block, and Brawl, some of the best defensive warrior spells. The flexibility of the new Phantom Militia would likely be good here, too. But we all know everyone just wants to use Tank Up! Beyond that, Glitter Moth makes me eager to try an OTK Priest deck. I’ll leave the remainder of the speculation to you all, at least until the cards start trickling out on the 26th.
Blizzard certainly seems to have opened a lot of space for creativity with Witchwood; the metagame should resist stagnancy for a while as new even and odd decks surface, popularize, and I’m sure lead to counters of all sorts. The designers, meanwhile, are happy to move away from the historically problematic Charge mechanic — at least as we currently understand it. We’re looking at you, Leeroy Jenkins.
What are you eager to try when Witchwood drops? Are you Team Genn or Baku? Be sure to link to your theorycraft creations in the comments!
I can guarantee you 100% that control warriors are gonna play odd decks due to upgraded hero power.
There are a lot of good control cards in warrior with even mana cost I'm not sure if Odd Control Warrior is going to be a thing.
I can see an odd taunt (quest) warrior and an even control warrior with DMH and self damage mechanics. Each of those decks fit perfectly with the odd/even styles that are bound to come out. Whether or not they're viable is a different story, but the fact they exist shows that even w/o a specific card like Glitter Moth, shows that there is support for the archetype.
starts an 26th of March, 23:59 ;)
i dont see why we need to regurgitate thoughts from the first day or 2 after these cards were shown with no new developments until tomorrow. this article should have waited until the reveal then talked about possible new synergies instead of a rehash of information
It's a good thing to read while still on the wait though,most of us here are article junkies and inpatient as to seeing the new reveal stream,everything to kill some time is good until then.
While I'm not the best at building decks, I do enjoy the challenge of creating them. Creating a 2 decks per class with the odd/even mechanic will be interesting. Stop thinking that odds or evens limits you in your deckbuilding, instead think of it as looking at all the cards we've glossed over for one reason or another and see how it fits within these types of decks. Good puzzle solving to come I think.
Edit: Also, who cares if Murkspark Eel (for example) is for the even deck type. Make an Odd deck type or forget the whole concept entirely and build a deck with *gasp* both odd and even cards.
I can't say that I am pretty happy about odd/even mechanic, but it is something new and it may be a base for new mechanics as Rok'Delar. So this is good card. 2 legendary, but with potential for a lot of new decks. It may be failed mechanics, but thats why they maybe release only 6 cards, not 30-40. If it is successful, they will maybe develop it (as in MSTG they , develop highlander decks).
PS No one care who will per-order and who will not pre order the game. Am I telling you what I will not preorder? Now you need to prove that your opinion is valuable at all.
Typo: The rogue hero power equips a 1/2 dagger, not a 1/1.
Nvm, didn't see the other comments lol
Makes me realize that I have NEVER seen the rogue upgraded hero power, it's so weird
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Rogue's starting HP adds a 1/2 dagger, not 1/1.
How are they incouraging creativity when they don't even bother to create more than 10 cards to support the entire Even & Odds archetype?
Literally EVERY card they print supports these archetypes because EVERY card is either even or odd.
They would be hurting creativity if they made it a clear deck that made itself like that. You are basically saying that C'thun and Jade are mechanics that promoted creativity.
rogue 2/2 dagger is the trashiest hero power but if they can access it from the start of the game theres some serious potential
The potential is even greater when you only need to use it once every 2 turns which fits the mechanic perfectly
An infinite Taunt or Spell Damage on demand is nothing to laugh at