Core Set Wishes and Predictions: What Cards Would You Want to See in the Core Set?

The new Hearthstone Core set is almost upon us. We will get to see all the included cards later this week, but already the reveals from Blizzcon are enough to convince me that the Core set is going to be a big deal. While there are fewer cards in the Core set than there were in Basic and Classic, 235 cards are still plenty if those cards are actually worth playing, and the early indications are that they just might be good!

In this article, I take a look at some of the most fun cards from the past that I hope are included in the Core set. You can find our up-to-date coverage of what cards are confirmed to be in the Core set here. Let me know in the comments what you wish would be included!

Overall, many of the cards in the Core set seem to be playable, even if they are not the very best cards. The right power level, the right fit with the class identity, and being fun are the main criteria that I try to use when thinking about cards that could make the cut.

Demon Hunter

Cards that we know are in: –

Cards that we know are out: –

Demon Hunter does not have the rich history of other classes, but its Basic and Initiate sets are rotating out of Standard with the next expansion. We know that the Core set will include four Demon Hunter cards from the Initiate set and four cards from Ashes of Outland (even though they are not rotating out yet, anyway). We also know that the Core set will include 160 class cards overall, so that would mean 16 cards for each class. Therefore, Demon Hunter should get eight of their Basic cards back in addition to the cards from Initiate and Ashes of Outland.

The Demon Hunter Basic set includes 10 cards, so only two of those should retire to Wild. I’d expect Coordinated Strike to leave, as it has not been of any use, but the second one is more difficult to guess. Either way, most of Aldrachi Warblades, Chaos Nova, Chaos Strike, Glaivebound Adept, Inner Demon, Satyr Overseer, Shadowhoof Slayer, Sightless Watcher, and Soul Cleave will be with us for at least another year.

The Demon Hunter Initiate set includes 20 cards, of which only four will remain. But which four? Almost half of the cards see regular play: Altruis the Outcast, Raging Felscreamer, Blade Dance, Eye Beam, Umberwing, Consume Magic, Mana Burn. Twin Slice, and Battlefiend. Given that the Core set cards mostly look playable, I would expect the remainers to be found from this group of cards.

I’d like to see some of the most powerful cards remain to keep Demon Hunter competitive: Altruis the Outcast, Eye Beam, Umberwing, and Twin Slice would be my choices. These would promote the rapid playstyle of Demon Hunter for the next year while it gets some new tools.

Druid

Cards that we know are in: Menagerie Warden, Feral Rage, Pounce

Cards that we know are out: Savage Roar, Wrath, Swipe

The Druid card I would most like to see in the Core set is Savage Combatant. Druid is moving in this feral direction and they use Beast synergies and Hero attacks, and no other card combines the two in the same way as Savage Combatant does. Would an old card from The Grand Tournament be strong enough to see play today? With the right synergy cards, why not, although finding just the right power level is a challenge.

Another Druid card that I would be happy to see return is Branching Paths. The power level of Branching Paths is definitely high enough to see play: it might even be too high. With Savage Roar on its way out, Branching Paths would be a slightly more expensive and hugely more flexible substitute.

Hunter

Cards that we know are in: –

Cards that we know are out: –

Hunter is a riddle wrapped up in an enigma. Beasts? Secrets? What will we get in the Core set?

I really hope King Krush gets to stay, as it is such an iconic minion. I also hope it is joined by its kin in the form of Swamp King Dred, which would give Hunter a truly iconic pair of Legendary Beasts. Swamp King Dred is also a wonderful card to teach people about Hearthstone: back when it was current content, I saw countless people make mistakes when Dred was on the board, followed by hovering over the minion to check what exactly its text said. It was both hilarious and educational, a perfect Hearthstone card.

Another card that combines strength with fun is Bearshark. It is perhaps my favorite Hunter card of all time: a strong, aggressive minion that is hilariously Hearthstoney with its over-the-top concept and illustration.

Hunter has such an abundance of fun cards, I wish I could have them all back. Flanking Strike, Dire Frenzy, Quick Shot, and Crackling Razormaw were all a ton of fun to play with, it seems impossible to go wrong with whatever they choose to bring back for Hunter. As long as it is not Dinomancy.

Mage

Cards that we know are in: Fireball

Cards that we know are out: –

I’d love to see Meteor back in action. In Journey to Un’goro, the biggest dinosaur had 14 Health, and Meteor deals 15 damage to its main target, just enough to kill the biggest of dinosaurs. I always found that hilarious and would love to see Mage have access to this damage-based removal that is able to wipe out even huge minions. If something is big enough to survive a meteor, you’re in trouble anyway.

It is hard to decide what other Mage cards would be fun to see back in the game. If you give Mage access to a ton of direct damage, it promotes burn decks too hard. Mage also has a history of randomly generating answers, and many of the iconic old Mage cards are based on randomness, which is already too prevalent in the game. While Babbling Book has been there to decide championship titles, it may not be healthy for the game overall.

Perhaps a suitable compromise could be Ethereal Conjurer. Discover is a core effect in the game nowadays, and Conjurer’s mana cost can keep it from swinging the games too hard. On the other hand, is it even strong enough in the current meta anymore?

Paladin

Cards that we know are in: Tirion Fordring

Cards that we know are out: –

There are many paths Blizzard can take with Paladin. At Blizzcon, they talked about handbuffs being core to Hearthstone nowadays, so perhaps they will bring some handbuff cards back for Paladin. Grimestreet Outfitter would be the stronger option for a meta as fast as we have now, but I’d be more interested in Grimestreet Enforcer: while a little slower, it is a threat that has to be answered, and it would create some interesting gameplay.

Secret Paladin is another interesting Paladin archetype that currently cannot survive, in large part because Paladin secrets are terrible when drawn. Some baseline ability to cheat out Secrets could help Paladin, and I’m not talking about going full Mysterious Challenger, more like Bellringer Sentry. That would be of an appropriate power level to give the Core set a nice little Secret synergy card.

One of the most iconic Paladin cards of all time is Spikeridged Steed, but I hope they do not bring it back yet. Combined with Librams, I’m afraid it would be crazy. However, it is something I’d like to see next year when Librams rotate out.

Priest

Cards that we know are in: Shadowform, Thrive in the Shadows

Cards that we know are out: Mind Blast

We know that Priest is getting back some face damage. It was discussed in some more detail during Blizzcon, and Mind Blast is not coming back, but multiple cards that deal a bit less damage will be included. Hopefully, this will make playing against Priest a little more tolerable, as they may have some actual win conditions in their deck.

Priest’s back catalog mostly consists of cards that steal stuff, so trying to find something that could make the class more proactive is difficult. I think Priest might be one of the foremost recipients of completely new cards in an attempt to turn the class around.

Trying to find some old stuff that could return, how about Velen's Chosen? A bit of spell damage could help with both clearing the board and going face. Or maybe Light of the Naaru and Holy Champion? When the entire history of the class is focused on Hero Powering your opponent’s face on turn two and then trying to steal a win condition, it is not easy to find good candidates from the old sets.

Rogue

Cards that we know are in: Vanessa VanCleef, Tomb Pillager, Assassinate

Cards that we know are out: Edwin VanCleef

So, we get Vanessa VanCleef instead of Tess Greymane? That’s really too bad. Tess would have made for some interesting moments, and Blizzard has said that they are looking into some burgle effects for Rogue. That would be a change from Rogue’s current relentless face damage, insane card draw, and endless generation of random resources, I guess. With the current extremely powerful strategies available to Rogue, it is just hard to see how any burgle effects could find enough room to see play.

The burgle card I hope will be added to Rogue’s arsenal is Undercity Huckster. I always found it to be a fun card, and it is one of the more playable burgle cards in the game. Hallucination would be another alternative, it would also give Rogue a Core set card with Discover. Or maybe Swashburglar, it would also help enable some kind of Pirate Rogue, although I suppose that is just another name for hitting the opponent in the face all the time.

Shaman

Cards that we know are in: Earth Elemental, Feral Spirit, Lightning Storm, Novice Zapper, Tidal Surge

Cards that we know are out: Bloodlust

Overload is here to stay and it would be nice to see Shaman have some viable board clear effects. Those two are combined perfectly in Volcano, which would be a superior replacement to Hagatha's Scheme for most situations. It has overload, it helps fill a gap in Shaman’s arsenal, and it is a thematically very elemental-like spell. What’s there not to like?

I hope Shaman will lean more on Elementals and Totems than evolve in the future, and there is a perfect card to bring back to help those Totems out now that Bloodlust is going away: Thunder Bluff Valiant! It used to be insanely powerful back in the day, but that was years ago, and the power level of the game has increased a lot since. Now, it would be just another threat like many others, but a flavorful one for Shaman at that.

It would be nice to see the four-mana 7/7 meme come back to life as well. Flamewreathed Faceless is the original meme maker, and while it is nowhere near as scary now as it was back in Whispers of the Old Gods, it would still look impressive for new players and be nostalgic for old-timers.

Warlock

Cards that we know are in: Lord Jaraxxus (retuned as a Hero card!), Felsoul Jailer

Cards that we know are out: –

Warlock is already getting a Lord Jaraxxus Hero card, so I guess the class is kind of ready now.

However, if there is one Warlock card that I’d love to see back in the Standard format, it’s Defile. Defile is an incredibly powerful board clear, but it is also highly skill-testing. Some of the best times I’ve had in Hearthstone have been spent setting up perfect Defile boards where it just goes on and on and destroys everything, giants and weenies alike.

If Blizzard wanted to bolster Warlock’s demon synergies a little, another great candidate for a comeback would be Imp Gang Boss. It does not look like much with its 2/4 body, but it is surprisingly strong with its small Imp friends. Bonus points for being a familiar face to all the Battlegrounds players Blizzard is trying to lure to try constructed!

Warrior

Cards that we know are in: Grommash Hellscream

Cards that we know are out: –

Keeping Warrior’s armor dreams alive, it would be awesome if Shieldmaiden could return to Standard. Just a solid body with a bunch of armor on top. Nothing too fancy, but truly respects Warrior’s class identity.

With all the talk about handbuffs lately, Warrior could get one handbuff card for the Core set. I’d go for Grimy Gadgeteer. It is a flexible handbuff card that is not too strong for its mana cost, but it is something that the opponent has to react to, and that makes for interesting gameplay.

Mountainfire Armor is another Warrior card that could have a new life in Standard. It mostly saw play with N'Zoth, The Corruptor, but a world in which Nitroboost Poison exists could give it a whole new meaning in more aggressive Warrior decks as well. Just a very flexible card that fits the class like a glove.

Neutral

Cards that we know are in: Deathwing the Destroyer, Malygos the Spellweaver, Ysera the Dreamer, Overlord Runthak, Annoy-o-Tron

Cards that we know are out: –

The Dragon aspect rework takes a bunch of Legendary slots from Neutral cards, so I would be hesitant to expect more Legendary cards. I do not dare to hope for The Lich King coming back. OK, I do hope he comes back, but I don’t expect it to happen. However, there are plenty of interesting Neutral cards of other rarities that could be included in the Core set.

The Core set needs some big boys. Seeing big minions with a lot of stats is inspiring, even when they are not necessarily that useful in the end. Something like Living Monument could well be included for flavor and thanks to its Taunt ability, it is not completely useless. Amani War Bear could be a slightly more useful big minion, although based on some of the footage we’ve seen, I expect we’ll get Primordial Drake instead.

However, the Neutral card that I’d really want to see in the Core set is Fel Reaver: it is from Burning Crusade in World of Warcraft, so it goes well thematically with the Burning Crusade Classic launch in that game, and it teaches new players a lot about the game: burning cards does not always matter.

Another immensely fun card that I hope we get to see is Evil Heckler. It’s not really good enough to see play, but its voice lines more than make up for that small issue. The Neutral part of the Core set is the place to put all sorts of variations of decent stats and basic effects, some of which might be too weak to use, but can be grabbed to replace something if really needed. If Sen'jin Shieldmasta was also included in the Core set, new players could observe the difference between it and Evil Heckler, and learn something about defensive stats compared to offensive stats and when to use each.

I’d expect Blizzard to want some Discover cards in the Core set, including as Neutral cards. It might be too soon for Vulpera Scoundrel to continue in Standard, and Stonehill Defender might be a little too much, but why not include Tomb Spider or maybe even Firetree Witchdoctor, which would fit in nicely with the Dragon aspects.

With 75 Neutral cards in the set, there is room for a lot of cards, many of which I expect to be slightly below the level needed to actually see play. Hopefully, the ones that are too weak can still be flavorful and fun.

What Would You Want to See in the Core Set?

It’s only a few more days until we get to know all the Core set cards, and I have to say I’m excited. It is the biggest change ever for Hearthstone, and I have high hopes for the upcoming new meta. I also hope to see some of my favorite old cards back in Standard format, surrounded by brand new cards they have never been played with before unless they were so good that they saw play in Wild. If I could choose just one card to put in the Core set, it would be Bearshark. It is such a fun card. I cannot look at it and not smile, even after all these years.

What about you? What do you wish will be part of the Core set?