A year has passed, with all its stories, championships and drama. The cards released have caused massive swings in the meta of Hearthstone and it has arguably been one of the most impactful year ever, with the introduction of the Standard rotation. While much can be said about the success of this system (or lack thereof), we will soon see the next rotation begin. This will remove a lot of old cards, something arguably as impactful as the release of new cards.
This is the time I like to write some thoughts about the state of the individual classes, and where I would like to see them go in the new year. It has been a strong year for releases, being the first one in Hearthstone which saw two full expansions and 2017 will be the year when we'll see the full effect of this influx of new cards. 2017 will also feature two full expansions itself, both of which will release before the next HCT finals in early 2018, making this the perfect time to talk about what we should hope to see in these expansions.
Druid
”Dear Blizzard, I wish for Fandral to become evergreen.”
Druid is moving into 2017 in a mixed spot, not unlike the state they were in last year. Their new Jade Golem engine is potent but the preferred matchups of the deck are few and far between. There is not a lot of room in the meta for anti-control when control decks themselves are struggling.
The rest of the Druid cards from 2016 were solid in their focus. Yogg-Saron and [card]Arcane Giant[/card] let Druid rise to great heights, but since the nerfs, it has fallen from grace, unable to reach its former glory. Other Druid cards have had mixed results as well, despite some of them getting a lot of hype. The most overrated card of 2016 was without a doubt [card]menagerie warden[/card] from Karazhan, and while it rightfully is an extremely powerful card, the rest of the Beast package fell short and lacked synergy. This, however, leaves a lot of potential that new support could fill out.
The biggest issue with current Beast Druid is that their beasts are terrible targets for their best buff, [card]Mark of Y'Shaarj[/card]. With buffs giving equal amounts of attack and health, the best targets have always been those with high health and just enough attack to be good without the buffs. But looking at Druids' current beasts, those are the exact opposite. [card]Savage combatant[/card] has low health for its cost and [card]Stranglethorn tiger[/card] is likewise not worth the buff.
On these minions, Mark of Y’saarj is little more than a 2-mana draw a card. It's insufficient for competitive play and that is the biggest reason beast druids have gone nowhere. It's something that certainly could change.
Hunter
“Dear Blizzard, I wish to have a win condition again.”
Hunters are in a rough spot at the moment. As expected, both [card]Knife Juggler[/card] and [card]Ironbeak owl[/card] were nerfed at the start of the year, depriving Face Hunters of some of their favorite tools for aggression and bypassing taunts. [card]Leper Gnome[/card] also took a hard hit, rendering it useless, despite being a former favorite in Hunter decks. But it would seem Blizzard used this newfound design space to release some rather powerful cards for Hunters (maybe too powerful in one specific case). [card]Call of the wild[/card] at 8 mana singlehandedly managed to put Midrange Hunter to relevance. That success would be short-lived, though, as the card was nerfed to 9 mana alongside Yogg, another card Hunters had made great use of.
I personally wasn’t a fan of the nerf of Call of the Wild, as it seemed people were mostly pissed that there existed an 8 mana card that actually did something. On top of that it actively promoted Hunters to fight for a turn 8, instead of going full face. But here we are now.
Aside from Call of the Wild, nothing really stood out in this year's releases for Hunter. [card]Cloaked Huntress[/card] gave Secret Hunter some power, but in the end, they didn’t have the draw power or consistency to make it work. [card]Princess Huhuran[/card] seemed powerful, but was ultimately just a tool for overextending. And of all the classes from the Grimy Goons, Hunters got some of the best support for handbuffs, but arguably the worst cards for actually giving the buffs. [card]Knuckles[/card] also turned out to be the most underwhelming class legendary from Gadgetzan.
This is where we are. Hunters' current rankings in the tier leaves a lot of room for future card releases. There has already been a lot of interesting themes released for the class in 2016. Between [card]Rat pack[/card] and [card]infested Wolf[/card], Hunters have one of the most competent token engines in the game but so far Hunters have no way of actually making these tokens a threat. Cloaked Huntress also makes Secret Hunter an intriguing deck to build, but right now there are too many Hunter secrets that end up doing nothing. This would be the potential I think it makes the most sense to build on.
Mage
“Dear Blizzard, could I ever have a hero portrait that is NOT a human?...”
Some things in Hearthstone remain an eternal constant. The meta is degenerate, next expansion arrives soon™ and Mage gets solid releases in it. It was true in 2015 and was still true in 2016. The potency of Mage card releases has become a meme of itself at this point, in part due to how much it destroys the balance in arena. Another meme that was born was the power of [card]Babbling book[/card], which has been nicknamed “Paveling Book” after the 2016 world champion used it to great effect.
Gadgetzan has continued the trend of adding strong options to Mage. RenoMage was a deck under the radar before the release compared to RenoLock and Priest, but since last month it has proven to be just as competent as the aforementioned, holding its own in the meta. With all this success, it is once again hard to determine what mage should ask for. It is hard to find something in Mage that hasn’t been working.
One deck that has never really taken off is Secret Mage. Even when [card]Mad scientist[/card] was around, there was no deck dedicated to the use of mass Mage secrets with secret support and that hasn’t changed even with power support like [card]Kabal lackey[/card] and [card]Kabal crystal runner[/card].
Looking specifically at Kabal Lackey, it should be a really powerhouse of a card, letting you play a 3 mana card on turn 1 alongside a 2/1. But the strategy has some issues. All of the current Mage secret are either passive like [card]Ice Block[/card] or have scaling value with the target it hits. This is normally good since it means your opponent always has to be wary of playing high cost minions, but it sucks on T1 because this scaling works both ways. The [card]mirror entity[/card] that is a powerhouse T8 vs a Ragnaros is almost insignificant T1 vs [card]Babbling book[/card].
For Kabal Lackey to become good, Mage needs a secret with static value. This would be really strong with Kabal Lackey on turn 1, though of course this kind of secret would also be much weaker later in game
There is one other thing glaringly missing from Secret Mage at the moment. A horseman of the apocalypse! of secrets! Paladins got [card]Mysterious Challenger[/card] in 2015. Hunters got Cloaked Huntress in 2016. 2017 should be the year where Mages get their own horseman to be secretive with. No doubt it is their turn.
Paladin
“Dear Blizzard, if you give me ANOTHER 4 mana card, it better be a 7/7.”
I said last year that Paladins had little to desire, but Standard rotation was certainly something Paladins didn’t wish for. Though to be honest, considering the reports that Secret Paladin is still the highest tier deck in wild, it was probably for the best.
Paladins have not seen much success from recent packs though. From Old Gods and Karazhan came the most cards to support either Aggro or Control Paladin, but neither pack delivered on the ever important 2-mana minions, a spot where Paladins have few relevant cards to find in their classic set. With Gadgetzan came the Grimy Goons, which as a mechanic seemed to have potential, but so far have fallen short of making it to the meta.
I would say that not all looks bleak for the class. After Naxxramas, Paladin were also deep down in the tiers. Something Goblin vs Gnomes seemingly wasn’t able to fix even with the new powercards [card]Shielded Minibot[/card] and [card]Muster for Battle[/card]. But with the Grand tournament, came additional late game boost to the same strategies and suddenly the monster deck, Secret Paladin, was born. Even Midrange Paladin was considered a viable deck at the time. The same 2 part success could be fulfilled if Blizzard keeps focus on filling the gaps in the current Goons arsenal. Right now, it is too hard to maintain a large hand of minions and with the highest buff cards only costing 5, the deck tends to run out of juice in the late game.
A mechanic I think is unexplored here would be the ability to add tokens, specifically the iconic Silver Hand Recruits, to the hand. Silver Hand Recruits cost 1 mana while in hand but with generous spawn rate and handbuffs this could still be a potent strategy that would allow Goon Paladins to better fight for board early and still have minions enough later in game to get value from the handbuffs.
Warrior
”Dear Blizzard, I wish you would stop trying to make taunt warrior a thing. It will not be a thing.”
2016 was certainly not the utopia for Warriors like 2015 and they searched long for anything that could match the power and potency of the old Patron Warrior. And while those days are long gone, it hasn’t been all bad. C’thun Warrior made a push earlier in the year, and generally the card released for Warriors have been much more focused in theme than in 2015.
The taunt focus has stayed in the pack releases as well but while the focus is there, the execution has been lacking. Taunt warrior may have some of the best tools to straight up fight aggro decks, but falls short against pretty much anything else. The low attack of Alley Armorsmith makes it too unreliable against even average midrange minions like [card]Drakonid operative[/card], not to mention big minions like [card]Mountain giant[/card] or [card]Ragnaros the firelord[/card]. With the first part of Taunt Warrior cycling out soon, I personally think it is time to put this theme in the grave.
Dragon Warrior has had a resurgence with the pirate package, but it will be a short-lived one as all of the dragon cards rotate out soon and people have gotten better at dealing with the aggro pirate decks. With the card pool we are looking at so far, there is nothing to suggest that any kind of Midrange Warrior will be able to make a push past April.
Classic Control Warrior is also in a poor state. Between Kazakus and Jade Druid, there is no way the traditional style of Control Warrior will be sufficient. You simply cannot beat these decks through nutrition. The way I think Warriors has to go is more of a route where they take command of the board later in the game and make a huge burst of minions in a single turn. That is the kind of play these classes, especially Druid and Priest, historically have had a tough time dealing with.
This is it for part 1. Come back tommorow for talk about the state of the last 4 classes and what they should hope for in the next year.
