Textless cards fly by. We zoom in on the tavern, fly past some familiar faces and land on a shady looking troll. A fortune teller, but it’s not fortune she’s predicting. “Now I’ve got a tale to tell you…”, she ominously whispers, as the screen turns darker and darker. Eyes appear everywhere and purple tentacles squirm. Warcraft’s old gods have descended upon Hearthstone.

That’s how Hearthstone’s first zodiac year, the Year of the Kraken, began. Thematically perhaps not the most… welcoming. But in spite of the huge slimy creatures desiring to kill them, the community exploded with enthusiasm. The Year of the Kraken introduced Standard rotation, meaning every year the three oldest sets in Standard would only be viable in Hearthstone’s Wild mode. It has changed the game drastically, and continues to do so every year.

Now, however, the Year of the Kraken has lived long enough to see itself become the villain. Its expansions have seen the light of day in Standard long enough, and will rotate to Wild as soon as Hearthstone’s new expansion launches, presumably in early April.

But before that happens, let’s take a look at the Year of the Kraken’s cards one more time. Well, two more times. This two-part article series highlights the cards that will break our hearts when leaving us, but also take a critical look at the cards that resulted in angry concedes. Good news first, so here are the card’s we’ll miss!

Whispers of the Old Gods

Ragnaros, Lightlord

The thought is simple. The old gods are corrupting everything and everyone they can get their hands tentacles on. But Ragnaros, previously mind-controlled by the old gods, wasn’t too keen about becoming a slave again. So instead of sprouting tentacles and opening some extra eyes, the firelord turned towards the Light, picked up a shield and now fights for the good guys. At least for the time being.

It’s not solely the funny interpretation of Warcraft lore that’ll make Ragnaros, Lightlord a missed card though. The card is well-designed too. Far more subtle than its extremely powerful Firelord counterpart, the Lightlord is a defensive asset to Control decks. It calls for planning from both sides of the board, and sometimes even forced Paladins to use Equality in order to secure Ragnaros’ healing landing on their own face.

Disciple of C’Thun

“C’thun. C’thun! C’THUUUN!” This iconic phrase quickly rose to popularity after Whispers of the Old Gods launched, and decks like C’Thun Druid and C’Thun Warrior saw a lot of play. Disciple of C’Thun proved to be a powerful, but still very well balanced card. Its Battlecry, akin to Fire Elemental’s, is strong enough to set up efficient trades and fight for the board, in addition to buffing your C’Thun. Stat-wise it paid a heavy price though, boasting the attack and life of a Murloc Raider while being triple its cost.

Let’s be real, though. Virtually any C'Thun card could’ve taken this spot. The sub-race of minions built around a Legendary everyone received for free upon logging are almost all a sad loss. Blade of C'Thun barely saw any play, but boy did it feel amazing landing his golden dagger between the shoulder blades of a big minion. Not to forget, of course, about C’Thun himself and the joy of watching the big heap of eyes gradually growing.

Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End

Alright, away with those pitchforks. We know. Yogg-Saron, Hope's End was a menace for the first five months after its introduction. And no, it wasn’t a healthy card for the game at all. We’re talking about the post-nerf Yogg, however. The one that stops casting spells after it gets silenced or of it dies. There are few cards that build up as much excitement as Yogg-Saron.

With each spell you cast you can feel that extra Fireball jumping upwards and hitting you in your own face. But it doesn’t matter. You don’t play Yogg to win anymore, you’re past that stage. You’re playing Yogg-Saron to have fun, regardless of the outcome of the card’s effect. Still there will be people who disagree, who are glad the card is going to Wild forever. To those people: come on. Try it again. Give it another go, just for the sake of it. And when your Spell Hunter, Shaman or whichever else is out of options, slam down Yogg, and bow down before the god of death.

One Night in Karazhan

The Curator

A Beast, a Dragon and a Murloc. Up until The Curator’s release, these three were rarely (if ever) seen in one deck together consistently. With the arcane guardian, this changed all of a sudden. People were quick to figure out that a 4/6 body that draws you up to three cards is pretty good, and even better when you can influence which cards exactly those are.

With The Curator’s stats and effect it more naturally fit in a slower deck. Golakka Crawler and sometimes even a Stampeding Kodo could do their job more consistently, and later Plated Beetle found its way to the menagerie too. Alexstrasza and, before it rotated to Wild, Twilight Guardian filled the Dragon slot. Coldlight Oracle often rounded off the animation, being the only Murloc to be considered for an optimal Curator Battlecry. The Curator perhaps wasn’t the flashiest card in Karazhan, but it sure did ask for some creativity to come out of players.

Book Wyrm

The “holding a dragon in hand” mechanic has seen highs and lows in terms of viability. And Book Wyrm didn’t arrive at a time when the mechanic was exactly the best. But it didn’t have to wait too long: with Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Dragons became Priests’ main strategy. And Book Wyrm fit right in most lists.

Aside from the pun in the card’s name, Book Wyrm is just elegantly designed. It’s a great counter to aggressive decks, but doesn’t boast excessive stats for its mana costs. The blue dragon can be included in Dragon decks, but doesn’t have to if you want to be more aggressive.

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan

Tabbycat

Yes, you read that right. Sometimes, when you’re hosting a party, you have to accept their annoying spouse comes along. It’s exactly the opposite with Alleycat and Tabbycat. You play Alleycat because Tabbycat is included; there’s a reason Alleycat has been dubbed ‘ugly cat’ and Tabbycat ‘cute cat’. Just look at Tabbycat. The soft, orange and black fur. The big green eyes, looking at you in playful anticipation. Yes, Tabbycat is the real deal.

Aside from aesthetics and cute growls, the combo kittens are a nice 1-drop too. A 1 Mana 2/2 Beast for Hunters would probably be too powerful, but by spreading it out over two Minions the early game doesn’t have the possibility to escalate quickly.

Burgly Bully

Burgly Bully didn’t jump into the picture until the end of The Year of the Kraken, when it was revealed that Azure Drake would be rotating to the Hall of Fame, thus leaving Standard. All of a sudden the 5 Mana slot had a hole to fill, and it was Burgly Bully that became prime candidate as a Neutral alternative.

Unfortunately it didn’t turn out to be as strong as Azure Drake, only playing a significant role in OTK Paladin decks. Still, the card’s design will be missed in Standard. Much like Loatheb it made you realize how often you actually rely on playing spells, and how annoying it can be if you’re not allowed to play any. Unlike Loatheb, however, Burgly Bully did offer you a choice to play a spell or not. And it is that offered choice that’ll leave a small void upon rotation.

Mistress of Mixtures

It’s a tough job filling the hole other, more powerful cards have left. Especially if those holes were created by Curse of Naxxramas cards. Infested Tauren is a lesser Sludge Belcher, and Nerubian Unraveler tries its hardest to be the new Loatheb. But few cards were as hard to fill the hole of as Zombie Chow. Granted, the card was pretty impactful. Perhaps a tad too impactful, even.

Much like many other copy-cards, Mistress of Mixtures at first glance seemed underwhelming. Not too surprising, when compared to Zombie Chow. But the Forsaken chemist turned out to be a much more reasonable card than expected. The fact that it heals yourself perhaps even makes it better against aggressive decks than Zombie Chow. But it doesn’t feel as oppressive. And for that all, Mistress of Mixtures will truly be missed.

Be sure to check back next week, when we will list the Kraken cards we won’t miss as much!