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This Is What The Great Dark Beyond Will Bring to Hearthstone – Decks from the Theorycrafting Event

By: Old Guardian - - Updated:

The Great Dark Beyond arrives on November 5th, and it looks like a great expansion for Hearthstone! Loosely modeled after World of Warcraft’s Legion expansion, we get to play with Draenei, Starships, and the Eredar Triumvirate: Velen, Leader of the Exiled, Kil'jaeden, and Archimonde. Thematically, the set is one of the most exciting ones we have had recently and the art of the cards is fantastic. Hearthstone is a little bit closer to the Warcraft universe again.

But is it fun to play?

While the final answers will have to wait until the full release, content creators already got their first taste of the new cards in the theorycrafting event yesterday. The usual caveats apply: each deck had to include 10 cards from The Great Dark Beyond, so it was difficult to slightly modify and improve existing archetypes. Whatever theme each class had for the new expansion was the main approach that had to be taken.

For example, I usually always start a new expansion by building Control Warlock and Control Warrior, but this time I found it hard to build either of them within the ruleset of the theorycrafting event. This is in line with Hearthstone’s general direction: slow, attritional control is not part of the repertoire anymore. That said, the theorycrafting event offered a good balance of everything else. Aggro decks, midrange decks, a couple of combo decks, and even some potential budget options, all made a good showing. There is much to look forward to in The Great Dark Beyond.

Death Knight

Death Knight is one of the classes I saw the least during the event. They have their Deathrattle Starship support and a bit of interesting control support in Airlock Breach, which further cements Control Death Knight to Blood/Unholy over triple Blood, which does not have any major advantages left. The limited control tools in the event did not provide a good test bed for whether Control Death Knight is viable though.

What win condition would a control deck have, anyway? Zeddy’s answer is Kil'jaeden. Kil'jaeden provides a strong inevitability, that’s for sure. When you play it, your deck is replaced with an infinite portal of Demons. Essentially, you are considered to have every Demon in the format in your deck, and nothing else. You cannot go to fatigue and nothing can be shuffled into your deck. Draw effects work as long as there is a Demon that fits their description, and because amalgams are Demons, drawing any tribal minions works.

Furthermore, at the end of each turn, your portal deck gets a +2/+2 buff. I went as far as +14/+14 in one of my games with Kil'jaeden, and those are some big Demons indeed. The real difficulty is surviving to a point where you can safely play Kil'jaeden. Any control deck might be a suitable core to build around, but it would be even better if you could tutor for and discount your Kil'jaeden. In addition to Death Knight, Shaman looks like a potential home for the card thanks to its Battlecry locations.

Kil’jaeden Death Knight – Zeddy – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Demon Hunter

I only met a couple of Demon Hunters during theorycrafting, and they did not make a big impression. There were glimpses of hope there, as the Demon Hunter main mechanic in the expansion is Crewmates who are 4/4 minions with a bonus effect that also summon any adjoining Crewmates from your hand when played. So, if you have four Crewmates side by side, and you play one, all four are summoned to the board. 4/4 is a good statline for the early mid-game because there are far fewer ways to deal 4 damage than 3 damage. The real issue is finding a good way to generate Crewmates so that they are all next to each other in your hand and playing them early enough to win with that tempo swing. There are no Crewmate cards in the expansion, they are all generated by your Demon Hunter cards. There’s some potential here, but the exact list is yet to be found.

Druid

My main memory of meeting Druids in theorycrafting is how one of them played a doubled Distress Signal to build a big board, and managed to roll Doomsayers out of it. Yeah, I thought we were over that, but we are not. The main Druid support is for this Starship with lots of random Arcane stuff. Maybe there is something to it, but I was not impressed yet.

Druid also gets some big pieces that can be added to Ramp Druid, but not really within the theorycrafting event rules. I did play with Uluu, the Everdrifter, but it was not good. Each turn Uluu is in your hand, it gets two Choose One options from any Druid cards in the format. Then, if you play it, you get the 6/5 body and the effect of your choice. In practice, I waited several turns to get an effect that would be just right for that turn. It changes every turn, so you cannot save a good one for later either.

Final Frontier felt a little better, although I’m not sure it is a top tier card either. Getting Scrapyard Colossus from it can be fun though.

Hunter

Hunter can finally get a control Hero Power! Exarch Naielle turns your Hero Power into Tracking. No more face damage, and cheap targeted card draw instead. Whether this approach can be better than just winning the game early is far from certain, but if you want to do something different with Hunter, Naielle and the Hunter Starship give you an option to try. Biopod Starship and Yelling Yodeler give the deck a clear win condition too. It did not feel too intimidating in the event, but the refining is just beginning.

Starship Discover Hunter – Kubu – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Mage

Mage receives a lot of upgrades to its Elemental archetype, taking it into the direction of Elemental/Fire spell hybrid. The flashiest turns we saw in theorycrafting came from Saruun combined with Overflow Surger: a huge Spell Damage bonus that can then be used to cast direct damage spells. However, Saruun only buffs the Elementals in your deck, so you need some specific draws to make it work. Consequently, I have high hopes that Budget Elemental Mage can receive a major upgrade from the new set and go under the Saruun versions of the deck.

Elemental Fire Mage – Kris O Five – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Paladin

The new Libram Paladin continues Paladin’s legacy of strong midrange decks. The Librams are incredibly powerful, but with one condition: they need to be discounted. For example, Libram of Divinity is a +3/+3 buff to a minion of your choice every turn once you have four Libram discounts.

Early in the game, the deck’s main priority is to find Interstellar Starslicer and Interstellar Wayfarer. Instrument Tech is all but mandatory in the archetype to get your Libram train rolling. Some versions of the deck also use Astral Vigilant for more Wayfarers and Holy Cowboy to enable a zero-cost Libram of Faith.

In addition to the new Librams, Yrel, Beacon of Hope gives the deck access to the good old Libram of Justice, Libram of Hope, and Libram of Wisdom.

The archetype is incredible scary when it gets a good start, and once the deck is fully refined for consistency, it will be a monster on the ladder.

Libram Paladin – Funki Monki – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Zilliax: Haywire Module + Perfect Module

Priest

Priest is the odd one of the bunch. I did not meet a single one in the event, and I have a hard time even figuring out how the new cards win games. I’m just at a complete loss here.

Edited October 25: Our readers had spotted a Priest deck, and a scary-looking Priest deck at that, in the event. It turns out that the key to making Priest work is not to venture deep into The Great Dark Beyond, but to just pick up the best pieces – Anchorite and Overzealous Healer – and add them to an Aggro Overheal Priest core.

Overzealous Healer is another good target for Trusty Fishing Rod, helping you get that early board control.

The real star is Anchorite. Anchorite can make your minions huge, and that opens up Crazed Alchemist to turn all that Health into Attack. Bonus points for giving all that Attack to another minion with Chillin' Vol'jin for a second huge hit.

Aggro Overheal Priest – maxiebon – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Zilliax: Pylon Module + Ticking Module

Rogue

Rogue is back to combo shenanigans, this time with the help of Quasar. Quasar allows the Rogue to essentially play their entire deck very early in the game. It does come with some caveats. Quasar itself costs six mana, and it shuffles the Rogue’s hand into their deck without drawing any cards. To overcome these obstacles, Rogue wants to use Preparation to cast Quasar early, and have Quick Pick equipped and Knickknack Shack on the board ready to go, so that they can start drawing cards immediately.

When everything is free, some Spell Damage minions, damage spells, and Asteroids from Moonstone Mauler can end the game. Asteroid is a new card that is cast when drawn and deals 2 damage to a random enemy, and Moonstone Mauler shuffles some into your near-empty deck for an immediate effect.

Quasar Rogue – ClarkHellscream – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Not all Rogue players want to play a million cards in a turn though. Some of them just want to play all the different cards the game has to offer, while still playing Rogue as their class. For those players, Blizzard has provided Rogue with Starship parts from all classes to build the ultimate Starship, and then do it again.

Starship Rogue – Zeddy – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Shaman

Asteroid Shaman was one of the most talked-about decks in the event. Some of the Asteroid cards are Neutral, so they can be used by any class, like Quasar Rogue, but Shaman has its own class-specific Asteroid cards Ultraviolet Breaker, Bolide Behemoth, and Meteor Storm, which makes Shaman the top choice for Asteroids.

What form Asteroid Shaman takes is still uncertain. Many players chose to go with a combo-style approach featuring Shudderblock and Sasquawk. However, it may also be possible to build an aggro version of the deck, which might even work as a budget deck.

Combo Asteroid Shaman – Jambre – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Zilliax: Twin Module + Perfect Module

Aggro Asteroid Shaman – Otsu – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Warlock

Warlock has a Starship to build and the ability to get random Demons, but neither of those were too impressive in the theorycrafting event. However, there was one Warlock deck that I saw and also tried out myself that was a lot of fun. Maybe a bit too fancy for ladder play, but hilarious when it works. It’s Machadogps’ OTK’ara Warlock.

The idea is to play K'ara, the Dark Star, Cursed Campaign, and Reverberations. When your K’aras die, this will give you four dormant copies of it that wake up in two turns. When they wake up, you play Reverberations on one of the copies and follow that up with cheap Shadow spells: Mortal Coil, Drain Soul, and especially Abduction Ray. Reverberations will steal 8 Health from random enemies, and each subsequent Shadow spell will steal another 10 Health. Note that this is stolen Health, so it ignores Armor. You can get more than 50 reach with this, although the opponent’s minions can soak the damage. If you play any non-Shadow spell, the effect ends with that as the Spellburst is then consumed, but you can add a Coin at the end.

K’ara OTK Warlock – Machadogps – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Warrior

Control Warrior did not get much in the new expansion. I tried to play with Spore Empress Moldara, but it was not good. You can get a lot of value out of it, but the variance is huge. The Replicating Spores are not cast when drawn, they actually cost 5 mana to play. When you play the first one, you get a random 5-drop. The next one gives you the same 5-drop you got from the first one, and another random 5-drop, and so on. If you get a strong 5-drop early, they can be great, but if your early ones are weak, you will get those same weak ones every time and the value is much lower.

I also played with Dwarf Planet. That card needs some very, very serious buffing to be useful in any way.

So, those were the bad news. The good news is that Midrange Warrior is back!

Draenei Warrior can play some big Draenei, some of which can even go face right away (people have also been tinkering with the idea of an OTK variant). Stalwart Avenger is incredible. You have a lot of ways to buff its attack, so it will hit hard. At the end of your turn, that Attack turns into Health, so it is difficult to remove. At the end of the opponent’s turn, the big number becomes Attack again. It is the real cornerstone of the deck. So far, it looks like Libram Paladin does a better job with Draenei than Warrior, but this is definitely an archetype to keep an eye on when the expansion launches.

Midrange Draenei Warrior – Kubu – Great Dark Beyond Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Conclusions

Overall, The Great Dark Beyond is an interesting set. There are some mechanics in it that look destined to be strong. There are aggro decks. There are midrange decks. There are combo decks. Some fun cards with a lot of variance that can win games, but are unlikely to show up in the competitive meta. A couple of really weird classes too, especially Priest, but maybe someone will figure those out as well. I look forward to the launch: I played almost 8 hours in the pre-release event, and there is still so much more to explore!

Old Guardian

Ville "Old Guardian" Kilkku is a writer and video creator focused on analytic, educational Hearthstone, and building innovative Standard format decks. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OldGuardian Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/old_guardian

Check out Old Guardian on Twitter or on their Website!

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2 Comments

  1. XNanoks
    October 25, 2024 at 12:30 PM

    Fun read, Ville! Do you have a VOD on your channel?