A month after its 2 year anniversary and fresh off of a PAX East weekend, Hearthstone is making a big splash with its next expansion, Whispers of the Old Gods.
Blizzard is celebrating this week by awarding players that log in with 13 total free packs of Whispers of the Old Gods — 3 for logging in and 10 additional for winning 7 games in standard mode. A marvelous way to start collecting the massive 134 card expansion, and experiment with the all new standard mode.
It’s only natural that Blizzard would come out with a patch right before the newest expansion, and in doing so they altered 12 of some of the most used cards in the classic and basic packs. The biggest changes affect Druid decks, completely removing the Savage Roar and Force of Nature combo which allowed players to burst a quick 14 damage instantly. I’ve listed below all of the changes; you’ll also be briefed when you log in for the first time since the change as well.
Notable Classic Card Changes
- Knife Juggler damage reduced to 2 down from 3.
- Big Game Hunter cost is up 2 from 3.
- Force of Nature cost down 1, Treants no longer have charge or die after turn.
- Ironbeak Owl cost is up to 3 from 2.
- Leper Gnome damage reduced to 1 from 2.
- Molten Giant cost is up 5 from 20.
- Keeper of the Grove health down 2 from 4
- Ancient of Lore now only draws 1 card down from 2
- Master of Disguise now only gives stealth for 1 turn
- Hunters Mark cost up 1 from 0
- Blade Flurry cost up 2 from 2 (good bye to Rogue board clears)
- Arcane Golem health up 2 from 2, no longer has charge.
Hearthstone will now have two different modes to play competitively ranked: Wild and Standard. Wild will continue to let us play with all the cards we’ve loved for the past few years along with the newest releases. Blizzard is following the successful format of Magic the Gathering with Standard, which only allows players to play with the recent expansions. We can now say goodbye to Goblins vs Gnomes & Naxxramas; the removal of key cards is going to change the structure of decks of the past and force players to become more and more creative. You can now start looking to replace one of the most controversial cards, Dr. Boom, along with one of the best value cards in Piloted Shredder or Healbot that were staples in almost every deck.
This expansion focuses heavily around the legendary card C’Thun, who was one of our favorite bosses in World of Warcraft during the AQ patch. C’thun is a 10 cost 6/6 with a Battlecry that will split his attack power among all minions when played; now there are numerous cards that will buff your C’thun no matter where he is in the game (your deck, your hand, etc). This can lead to a big upside if you can stall and keep building him up to a 10/10, 15/15 or even a 20/20 for that matter! Imagine if you have Brann Bronzebeard in play, triggering C’Thun’s effect twice and leaving your opponent completely decimated. We can see Sylvanas Windrunner being one of the secret weapons to countering C’Thun, as we all know how big of swing she can bring to a match — and this one would be devastating.
There are a few cards that were introduced in this expansion that we really love already, and we can start to see the game evolve with them. Speaking of evolving, Shamans receive a 1 cost spell named Evolve that transforms all of your minions in play into a random card with 1 cost higher than the current card. This can be an absolutely amazing combo if you’ve got game-board advantage and combo it with 2 Evolve Spells, especially with Master of Evolution, who can transform a minion into a cost higher one. This combo would allow you to upgrade your minions to catastrophic levels, making it a high priority for your opponent to clear it or face being burst down by you with an aggro themed deck. Mages received a 6 drop 5/5 that summons a random 3 cost minion. We’re reminded of Piloted Shredder and how it was such an essential card to decks; we envision that this card will be just as important in Mage builds.
The old Meta of Hearthstone consisted of Secret Pally, Control Warrior, Dragon Priest, Tempo Mage, Aggro Lock, and Control Druid consistently in Tier 1 rank of decks. Hearthstone recently nerfed a lot of those combos last week, all the while introducing new cards to hinder the performance of a lot of those decks. For example, Eater of Secrets is a 4 drop 2/4 that will destroy all of your opponent’s secrets, which is a direct counter to the Paladin card Mysterious Challenger. We look forward to the new Meta and the excitement to all the new changes ahead in the competitive scheme, as we’ve been messing around with an all new Murkadin aggro deck and Tempo C’thun Spell deck.
What deck will you create?
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