Written by: Space Monkey Follow @spc_monkey
Although it's good idea to first level up all the classes to level 10 and see what each one of them can do, you could safely craft these cards for small amount of dust, knowing that they will greatly help you in leveling your heroes. Most of them will win you games even when you reach Master+ rank and it won’t be a waste of resources to acquire them at one point or another.
Ironbeak Owl
This small owl was the first card that I actually crafted and is the embodiment of the power of silence in this game.
The mechanic itself is helpful in plenty of ways. It removes taunt, divine shield, all the buffs and effects that the targeted minion might have and can even be used to remove debuffs from your minions, e.g. when they are frozen.
More often than not you are going to use silence in mid-late game so you might be wondering why would you need this weak 2/1 body instead of the 4/3 Spellbreaker. That’s mainly because you can easily spend 2 mana and do something else after that instead of committing most of your turn to debuffing one enemy minion. The crafting priority Ironbeak Owl or Spellbreaker mainly depends of player’s choice of deck. If you’re running an aggressive deck – especially a Hunter one – do go for the Owl.
Spellbreaker
The same reasoning about how good silence is applies to the Spellbreaker as well and I highly recommend that you have two copies of it in your collection early on. You should craft Spellbreaker before Ironbeak Owl if you want to play a more control oriented deck with solid mid-range minions like, say, Mages and Priest. Spellbreaker’s 4 attack puts him in the golden middle ground where the Priest’s main removal spells – Shadow Word: Pain and Shadow World: Death –cannot touch him.
- Faerie Dragon
This is very good agro minion. He has above the average stats for his mana cost and the unique ability that he cannot be targeted by enemy spells or hero powers. This means removing the Fearie Dragon must either be done through attacking (and with 3 attack it’s an almost guaranteed one for one trade in the early rounds), by targeting him with unit powers (like sniping him through Knife Juggler) or by AoE spells.
That said, Faerie Dragon might make your opponent commit resources to killing him and he might overextend or rush into an uncalculated mistake in his eagerness to kill it. It’s a lot better than the basic Bloodfen Raptor (expect if you are hunter) or even the Acidic Swamp Ooze, which is only good against the weapon wielding of the classes. Crafting the Faerie Dragon will definitely not be a mistake.
- Harvest Golem
At first he might looks a little too weak but actually the Harvest Golem is great 3 drop, because he trades two for one with your opponent’s minions. Both of his parts are good and could kill some 3 or even 4 drops on your opponents' side.
Raging Worgen
Now this is a great creature that you might run in every class deck, especially if you are a Mage or a Warrior.
The Worgen could easily turn the game around. Mages can ping him with their hero power and have a 4/2 windfury creature ready to smash their opponents’ faces for 8 damage. Warriors can always Inner Rage him or use him to clean the board after a Whirlwind.
The Raging Worgen fits in other classes, too, but sometimes you might have to work a little bit to turn it into beast. On the flipside, this is a minion that always has big target on itself and can be sure the enemy will not hesitate before killing it. This means that even if you don’t get to enrage the Worgen, you can still use him to bait removals.
Oh, and if you’re a Priest, remember that healing the Raging Worgen fully will remove the enrage effect.
- Acolyte of Pain
This 1/3 masochistic minion is going to offer you very good deal for the damage it takes instead for you – cards. In most of the cases you are going to draw at least one card out of him which is OK but sometimes he is going to give you so much more. He has many good uses in most of the classes and you would not make mistake if you have him in your decks. He is perfect in Priests, Mages, Warriors and Shamans who can either heal him so that he can stay on the field longer and look for draw-triggering engagements or ping him for cards themselves.
The classes that might not want Acolyte of Pain are Druid or Hunter, because they either have different ways to draw cards or rely on completely different synergies altogether.
- Dark Iron Dwarf
By giving a +2 attack on battlecry, the Dark Iron Dwarf is going to ruin the plans of your opponents so very often. He is changing your onboard damage and could help to kill that annoying taunter that is stopping your army. It's always good to have some surprises for your opponent and this dwarf is one of the best commons for that purpose. Last but not least, like the Spellbreaker he also falls into this golden middle ground where he cannot be killed by the Priest’s removal.
Honorable mentions: Craft these if you still have extra dust that you want to invest in neutral commons. Maybe if you are not decided about your class yet.
Leper Gnome
This small fellow is very good in the agro decks. He is almost always going to do at least 4 dmg to your opponent and most of the time your opponents is going to spent mana to kill him which adds even more value to him.
The only reason that the Leper Gnome is not among the top seven is his somewhat smaller versatility. Many classes have their own class-specific one-mana drops when they need them which leave the Gnome benched. That’s why think ahead and don't rush to craft him if you have better options. I have personally found it very useful in agro Mage and Warrior decks and play him in 3-star master where I'm always happy to see him in my opening hand.
- Loot Hoarder
This is the exact opposite of Novice Engineer: Reversed stats and card draw on deathrattle instead on battlecry. It's the more aggressive choice than the Engineer and will make your opponents feel bad when they spent mana to kill it. Unlike the Novice Engineer, the Loot Hoarder could trade well for most 2 drops and even some 3 drops (that is if he stays alive long enough). He is not mandatory, though, and you can just as easily play with his counterpart.
- Silver Hand Knight
The knight and his squire are great 5 drops in your first Paladin and Shaman decks which are the classes who want to have as much bodies on the board as possible. So having 6/6 divided between two bodies, one of which is immune to Priest's removal, is always good.
These are the common cards I urge you to craft as they will become the core of your constructed decks. This is also only the first part of our crafting guide series and the next chapters will focus on the best neutral rares as well as the most essential class-specific cards.
