PC Gamer
What will you craft very first?
After months of waiting, the Old Gods are eventually upon us. The fresh expansion is live on NA now and hits EU tomorrow, at which point the Hearthstone tavern will be drowned in the eldritch corruption of Warcraft`s most powerful monstrosities. I hope you like tentacles.
The very first few weeks after a set comes out are generally the most arousing. Millions of packs will be opened as players get their arms on fresh cards that they want to build entire decks around. (Here are nine decks which Trump plans to attempt.) Intriguingly, for the very first time deck-building decisions will be coloured by the fact that old sets–Curse of Naxxramas and Goblins vs Gnomes on this occasion–will be rotating out of the fresh Standard format.
To make your crafting calls somewhat lighter, and help you determine which of the Old Gods cards have the potential to form the next Hearthstone meta, we asked eight of the best competitive minds to give us their opinion. Over the following glides we list the ten cards they picked as the most powerful, in switch roles order.
Alex «Raven» Baguley | Twitter
Ten. Evolve
Evolution is a recurring theme for Shaman in the Old Gods set. It`s a mechanic never seen before in Hearthstone, but which has the potential to be game-breaking. The signature card is Evolve, a one mana spell that upgrades any minions on your board to be a one mana more expensive creature. The card trickles value and analysts and players alike lightly spotted its potential.
«This card can be very powerful if you can get a lot of totems down,» says Nick «Aquablad» Secker, official HCT analyst for the Winter Preliminaries. «The added benefit is using your minions to clear the board and then converting bruised creatures into fresh ones with utter health. This is very similar to Master of Evolution, but it`s influence will depend on the board size.«
Evolve`s power level might be so high, in fact, that it becomes omnipresent in Shaman decks. According to HCT caster Alexander «Raven» Baguley, «Evolve will more than likely be at least a one-of in Shaman decks.» It`s only a infrequent, too!
9. Eternal Sentinel
We proceed the Shaman love with this card, which answers the question: «what do you get when you put gams on a Lava Shock?»
Eternal Sentinel is a fresh early game minion for Thrall that eliminates the negative effect of the Overcharge mechanic, which will be excellent news for long-suffering Shaman enthusiasts. Of the pros we polled, the most excited about this card was poker triple-crown winner and Team Liquid player Bertrand «Elky» Grospellier.
«The card has such value and versatility, especially when you consider the synergy with existing Overcharge cards like Feral Spirit, Doomhammer, Lightning Bolt and Ancestral Skill. There`s also potential to combo this with Evolve and Master of Evolution to upgrade its Three/Two figure after it has triggered its Battlecry.»
Truesilver Championship two winner Joe «Ness» Zazzaro-Francis collective Elky`s enthusiasm and sees Eternal Sentinel as a good fit for aggro decks.
«A two mana Three/Two is already playable–give it an amazing effect like this and it should find its way into every Shaman deck. Undeniably better than Lava Shock (as two mana deal two harm is on a much weaker power level than a two mana Three/Two) and will only make aggro Shaman stronger.»
8. Master of Evolution
Shaman might be the thickest winner of the Old Gods set, with yet another pick from our pros. Master of Evolution is another value-packed card, with its stats not only passing the «vanilla test» of being a Four/Five minion for four mana, but also triggering an evolve effect on a friendly minion. For multi-tournament champ and G2 ace Dima «Rdu» Radu, understanding why this card is such a bounty to the Shaman class is a no-brainer.
«Having the same stats as a Chillwind Yeti with a super powerful effect, you don’t need to be a Hearthstone genius to see that this card is going to be truly good in midrange Shaman, syngergizing indeed well with cards like Tuskar Totemic or even the Shaman hero power. As you don’t need that much setup to get good value out of him–only one minion is required on board–you can compare him to Houndmaster. Instead of providing stats to a minion that can attack to surprise your opponent, however, you will want to play this card on a bruised target to get a fresh, more expensive minion.»
7. Faceless Summoner
Piloted Shredder was one of the defining cards of the post Goblins vs Gnomes era due to its strong bod and goopy Deathrattle effect. And while Shredder will be gone from Standard, this fresh Mage card looks like it might be similarly powerful.
«This six-mana Mage gives instant tempo by summoning an extra minion with its Battlecry,» Aquablad pointed out. «The stats on Faceless Summoner are decent, and combined with the extra 3-drop creature it makes the card represent a lot of value. It may find a home in Tempo Mage, but also any fresh midrange or control archetypes that are created.»
According to Rdu, Faceless Summoner is so good, that being a Mage card and not a neutral minion is critical for its balance.
«This card is kind of like a better Piloted Sky Golem for Mages,» he said. «If it had been a neutral the community would have been outraged since it would see play in almost every deck, much like Piloted Shredder did. The decks that would use this card might be fairly powerless now, so the card might not see much play originally, but expect to see a lot more of it at the end of the rotation if minion-based decks get some more early game.»
6. Mire Keeper
The capability to speed up their mana generation–or ramp–has long kept Druid as a top class in Hearthstone. With Old Gods, they get the Mire Keeper, which is a walking Wild Growth linked to a creature that can alternatively summon a Two/Two companion if the situation calls for it.
Sounds powerful? Team Archon`s Jon «Orange» Westberg described it as one of the jewels of the fresh expansion.
«This card is, in my opinion, the best card in the entire set, if not among the best in all of Hearthstone ever. Two exceptionally powerful effects on a solid assets mean that there is no point in the game where you will be unhappy to play this man. If you thought that Innervate into Keeper of the Grove was annoying to play against, that is nothing compared to an Innervated Mire Keeper.»
Five. Call of the Wild
Already affectionately nicknamed «Always Huffer» by the Hearthstone community, Call of the Wild is the late game spell that Midrange Hunters have been longing, and will certainly find a home now that the ubiquitous Dr. Boom is going out of rotation. The card ensures you a Five/Two charging Huffer, a Five/Four Misha taunt and a Two/Four buffing Leokk, all of which are brutes, generating a solid board for the price of eight mana and one card slot.
«Each Animal Companion is enormously strong at three mana,» says Ness. «And then you have Call of the Wild summoning all three for just 8–a much lower cost than expected, due to the lack of randomness. The value from this card is insane, and it should find its way into most Hunter decks.»
While he acknowledges Call of the Wild`s strength in a vacuum, however, Rdu is worried that midrange Hunters might still be lacking enough early game to reliably get through till the card is played.
«The only reason why this card is not top of my list is that Midrange Hunter doesn’t presently have enough good early game cards to ensure that they can always make it to turn 8. Expect it to be insane at the end of the format if that problem gets immobile.»
Four. Twin Emperor Vek’lor
The hype about the Twin Emperor is already strong with the fans, who have already begun calling the card «Emperor Seven». It`s the only one of C`Thun`s cultists that`s a legendary, which hints at the card`s power. And thanks to its dual taunt effect being relatively effortless to trigger, Vek`lor looks to be an auto-include for the likely swarm of C`Thun decks.
One of the most consistent players in Hearthstone, SK Gaming`s Harald «Powder» Gimre, also has a seat reserved on the Vek`lor hype train.
«I think this is just a super strong card overall, making two Four/6 minions for seven mana is pretty good. The downside of needing your C’Thun to be at Ten/Ten doesn`t seem like a big deal as there are slew of pretty good C’Thun buff cards.»
Powder`s countryman Orange echoes his sentiments, even going one step further.
«I actually think this fellow gives you more incentive to play C’Thun decks than C’Thun himself. 8/12 stats split up and with Taunt on top makes sure that this card will single-handedly take control over games that you are very behind in, and also assures that you get time to play your game-winning C’Thun.»
Three. Fandral Staghelm
Why choose one powerful effect when you can have both? Fandral Staghelm, the fresh Druid legendary minion, is such an evident, elegant, and fitting design for the class that it almost makes you wonder why Blizzard didn`t design it earlier. While it didn`t fairly top of any of our players` individual lists, Fandral was appreciated by more or less every pro player and analyst we talked to.
«With a solid Three/Five figure, Fandral can create some crazy swings when paired with Innervate,» HCT Europe Winter champ Naiman says.
And according to Orange, you won`t have to invest even that much to make this minion worthwhile:
«You don’t have to go out of your way to make him good. Living Roots, Anger, Druid of the Claw and Mire Keeper, to name a few, are already cards that any Druid deck would be very interested in. When you play any of those with Fandral on the board, the cards just get ridiculously strong. Curving Fandral into Druid of the Claw, or playing him on turn six and using Fury on a minion, are plays that will be very common for the next two years.»
Two. C’Thun
The god of chaos and the ancient qiraji race, C`Thun is the only Old God that made our list. And that makes flawless sense: C`Thun is designed to be the centerpiece of a brand fresh archetype of decks, suggesting an effortless to achieve and yet powerful win condition. With a host of cultists supporting it, it wouldn`t be shocking to predict C`Thun becoming one of the most influential cards of the set.
Elky said: «Obviously, with such a unique fresh mechanic and so many cards designed around it, it is super likely to have the thickest influence in the game, as so many decks will be built around him too. It is however hard to estimate the power of this mechanic and how reliable it will be in competitive games.»
While many would theorycraft where C`Thun would fit best, Naiman is certain that all classes should find reliable builds for the Old God.
«Almost all classes will have variations of decks using this card and they should be successful. The Battlecry is incredible on its own but the card also synergizes with cards like Twin Emperor Vek`lor, Twilight Darkmender and Ancient Shieldbearer.»
And the best part–everyone gets C`Thun and two Beckoner of Evil cultists for free. Sweet!
1. Flamewreathed Faceless
The card on top of our lists sits is not a powerful legendary or a devastating fresh spell, but is instead a plain Shaman common. Flamewreathed Faceless is a 7/7 minion for four mana that overloads for two and was unanimously voted the best card of the set by our jury. While the card is strong on its own, it`s further aided by the latest nerf of its natural predator–Big Game Hunter.
«Aggro Shaman didn`t suffer at the palms of the latest nerfs and has been given another powerful minion to add to its arsenal,» Aquablad stated. «With the nerf of Big Game Hunter this card is even stronger. In combination with Lava Shock and Eternal Sentinel, the drawback from the overcharge can be negated.»
Rdu and Ness both agreed with Aquablad`s assessment of Flamewreathed Faceless.
«This card will most likely be god tier on ladder and in tournaments,» Rdu said. «It’s a vanilla minion that is massively undercosted and there is no potential penalty because of BGH getting nerfed to five mana. In my opinion, the most powerful card of the set.»
«The tempo gained from playing a 7/7 on turn four is absurd. Totem Golem on steroids!» said Ness. «The overcharge for two next turn may hinder you from playing Doomhammer on curve, but playing a 7/7 on turn four may be the stronger play anyway. Also, the fresh two mana minion Eternal Sentinel can negate the overcharge effect, which gives even more reason why this card will be present in most, if not every, Shaman decks in Standard.»