Hearthstone Standard: Which Cards Should be Added to the Classic Set?

The Standard format for Hearthstone has been an interesting experiment thus far, but it’s clear that there are ways it could be improved. One way to improve it would be to add some of the unique cards that were in previous expansions to the Classic set. Stonekeep takes a look at which cards should be considered.

Introduction

The format split was very important for the health of the game. This way the most broken or annoying cards could rotate out and we could enjoy the new ones. Some of which will probably also turn out to be broken or annoying, c’est la vie.

On the other hand, a lot of fun and balanced cards will rotate out of Standard every year. Classic, paper CCGs might reprint them in the future – basically release the same card again, or maybe a very similar card with the same effect. Since Hearthstone is a virtual card game, it doesn’t have to do the reprints. There is another way.

Classic set will stay with us forever. And because of that, Classic needs changes, a lot of changes. I’ve already wrote an article about the Classic cards that should be nerfed to have a balanced game in the long run. This time around, I want to approach it from a different side. Instead of nerfing cards, you could make Standard more balanced and more of a “core” set by adding certain cards to it.

Right now, Classic doesn’t feel like the “core” set it should be. Classes aren’t very balanced, it lacks neutral defensive options, some removal added in expansions in order to balance the classes are gone, it has almost no synergies (the only big synergy tribe in Classic are Murlocs and some Pirates…) and I could go on for a long time.

I’ve decided to theorycraft a bit. So I’ve asked myself a question – “If I could add 3 cards from each class and 3 neutrals from each expansion to Classic, which cards would it be and why?” In this article, I’ll try to answer this, giving my point of view. Most of the choices are very subjective and I bet that Blizzard would do better with all the data they have. But until they do, we can at least play a theorycrafting game. Let’s start with Class cards first.

Class Cards

I’ve picked 3 cards per class, no matter what expansion they are from, that I would like getting added to Classic. A lot of these cards are currently in Standard, but they aren’t in Classic, so they will eventually rotate out. My criteria for choosing the cards were: class balance, class identity, uniqueness, synergies, fun factor, nostalgia (can’t help it, I’ve played the game since Beta and I’ve liked some cards more than the others along the way). I’ve decided to pick one Legendary and two non-Legendary cards per class. I’ll try to explain each choice briefly.

Living Roots

Living Roots is a solid card. It addresses the few problems the Druid class has in Classic – no turn 1 play, lack of removal, lack of flexibility. Druid needs some solid cards in the Classic after all the nerfs it got.

Mulch

Similarly to Living Roots, it addresses the lack of removal in Druid. It’s hard to build slower Druid decks with no hard removal, especially after Big Game Hunter was nerfed. Mulch is rather weak removal, but it’s better than nothing.

Fandral Staghelm

I feel like it’s a very flexible card that fits into a lot of decks and it’s really strong. It makes some “Choose One” cards that would normally not go into the deck playable. It has a unique and fun effect. It also gives Druid a 4-drop, because the only one in Classic (Keeper of the Grove) is underpowered after it was nerfed.

Quick Shot

I honestly think that every class should have access to some form of early removal. Quick Shot fits pretty much any Hunter archetype, but it’s not too strong. 90% of the time it’s a standard 3 damage for 2 mana, as it’s very hard to get the card draw procced. But the effect makes you alter your play from time to time, so it’s not a completely mindless card.

Infested Wolf

It’s one of the most balanced 4-drops that also fits into the Hunter’s theme. It’s a Beast, it’s a Deathrattle minion, so it’s pretty sticky, and it spawns more Beasts when it dies. But being only a 3/3, it can’t really be abused in very fast decks, as it doesn’t have too much immediate impact.

Dreadscale

I know that it was released together with Acidmaw, but I feel like Dreadscale is the only usable part. The card is pretty cool, as it promotes a slower Hunter play style. If you are the one with a lot of low health minions in your deck, it won’t be good. But it’s a nice tech card against Zoo-like decks.

Arcane Blast

The card feels like a perfect fit into Mage. It can’t target face, so it can’t be abused. At the base level it’s just 1 mana for 2 damage into a minion. But if you play Spell Damage minions in your deck (and Spell Damage is a solid theme for the Mage class), it gets much stronger.

Echo of Medivh

I feel like slow decks lost a lot of unique combos and possibilities with Echo gone. The card activated some cool decks, like Echo Giants Mage (playing cheap/free Giants and copying them with Echo) or Exodia Mage (getting the infinite Fireball combo win condition). Echo of Medivh decks were hard to play and interesting, but never overpowered.

Rhonin

I feel like all of the Mage Legendaries besides the classic Archmage Antonidas were underwhelming. But Rhonin seems to be the most playable, and it’s actually pretty interesting. By itself, it’s an 8 mana 7/7, so it’s really slow. But the Deathrattle is pretty strong, because 3 additional spells might have a lot of combos. Antonidas and Malygos being the strongest ones. It’s not too strong, but can be fun to play.

Coghammer

Unlike Muster for Battle, Coghammer was a pretty balanced weapon. It was really strong in certain cases, but pretty bad if you had no board presence (unlike Muster for Battle which was never a bad turn 3 play). It fits into the Paladin’s Divine Shield AND weapons theme.

Keeper of Uldaman

Paladin is known to manipulate minion stats. Keeper of Uldaman is a nice fit into Aggro, Midrange and Control decks alike, but I don’t feel like it’s really broken in any of them. It has pretty good synergy with what seems to be one of the main Paladin’s themes – Divine Shields.

Ragnaros, Lightlord

I love this card. It’s in line with the other Paladin’s theme – heavy healing. It can get a lot of value when played in the right spot, it’s also a great Aggro counter. I like this card and I think it’s on a similar power level to the classic Ragnaros the Firelord.

Priest of the Feast

It’s the latest addition to the Priest class from Karazhan, but I already feel like it deserves a slot in Standard. An Anti-Aggro card (Priest always felt like an Anti-Aggro class to me with all the heavy healing) that has solid stats, but can’t really be abused, especially once Resurrect will be gone.

Lightbomb

If I had to pick a single card that I would like to see in Standard most, that would probably be Lightbomb. It feels like Priest REALLY needs a solid removal. As a very slow, proactive class, it just sucks without combo mechanics and 5 mana 2 or 3 damage AoE is definitely not enough. Lightbomb gave another way of playing against Priest – right now it’s just “flood the board with midrange minions and win”, back then you had to do the right trades and drop the right minions to control the attack/health ratio on your minions.

Vol'jin

The card has a very cool, “shadowy” vibe into it and I feel like Priest needs more of it. Shadow Priest was an important part of the Priest’s identity in WoW. Vol’jin’s lines are also my favorite ones in the game, especially his enter line against Warrior. You should definitely check it out if you haven’t already heard it.

Undercity Huckster

The card feels very Rogue’y, while not being too strong or anything. It has the Deathrattle theme AND the “steal from other class” theme. It’s a strong 2-drop and in combination with other cards, it can be a mid/late game value card. But with only 2/2 stats, it can’t really be abused in any Rogue deck.

Tomb Pillager

This one I think is a little too strong, but I also feel like it’s necessary to keep Rogue viable. Coin was always “Rogue’s best friend” because of all the combo mechanics and synergy with Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Being a Deathrattle card itself, it also fits the Deathrattle Rogue decks.

Xaril, Poisoned Mind

Another card that showcases the Rogue’s play style. It can be dropped on turn 4 without really having any regrets, but it also has some nice late game scaling. The card is really slow at the start (because it’s a 4 mana 3/2 when you drop it), but over time the toxins can get Rogue a lot of tempo swings – activate combos, draw some cards, deal damage, protect minions etc. I also feel like other Rogue Legendaries were kind of mistakes, because they didn’t feel like they belong into that class.

Totem Golem

Don’t lynch me immediately. I feel like Totem Golem is a good card and it would still let Shaman have some of its early game power, while no longer having an insane curve with a strong play every turn. Totem Golem by itself is strong, but not broken – it’s the Tunnel Trogg, Tuskarr Totemic and others cards that together have made it broken. Totem Golem fits Shaman’s Totem theme and gives the class some VERY NECESSARY early game (Shaman’s early game sucks really hard in Classic).

Elemental Destruction

As long as they keep releasing ways to deal with Overload (like Lava Shock or Eternal Sentinel), Elemental Destruction will be a solid pick in any slow Shaman list. It allows the Control-style Shaman to be played without getting worried about opponents overwhelming the board. Shaman has no other way to deal with multiple midrange minions and I feel like Control Shaman is a healthy deck to have in the meta.

Hallazeal the Ascended

Once again, Hallazeal is pretty cool way to heal up in the slow Shaman decks. The healing doesn’t come for free and too early, as you have to combo it with multiple single target spells or some strong AoE to really get things done. Once again, it fits the slower Shaman play style much more, and might actually see more play once all the Aggro Shaman stuff will rotate out.

Darkbomb

Like I’ve mentioned with Quick Shot, I feel like every class should have access to some early game removal. Darkbomb was probably the weakest of them all, as it had no additional effect, but it was still a solid 3 damage for 2 mana. Great in any slower Warlock list, including RenoLock. It also made the Malygos Warlock archetype playable, which was really cool deck in general. Also, not abused in Zoo.

Dark Peddler

If you don’t know already, I really love Discover mechanic. Peddler can be strong in any Aggro/Midrange Warlock deck, but I don’t think it’s TOO strong. Thanks to Peddler, some less common, situational 1-drops might see play if they get discovered. And since Imp Gang Boss will be rotating out soon, I feel like Zoo also needs some staying power in the meta.

Mal'Ganis

It’s a really cool card. Feels like one of the most powerful Legendaries in the game. You pay almost all of your mana and you get a huge minion that potentially buffs your other minions and makes you invulnerable until it dies. The card was too strong when Voidcaller was a thing, getting it out on turn 4 often meant a free win. But if you can’t cheat it out early, it’s very balanced for the mana cost. It’s a counter to face decks and some combo decks and I would love to play it again in RenoLock.

Bloodhoof Brave

A strong Taunt option, it can be played in both Midrange and Control decks. If you run ways to activate it, you can turn it into a 4 mana 5/5 Taunt when you need it. It also might make trading awkward for the enemy, because the first hit gives it +3 Attack. And if they want to release some more Taunt synergies for Warrior in the future, it’s a great Taunt to have in such a deck.

Shieldmaiden

Sure, we have Ironforge Portal right now, but I liked Shieldmaiden much more. In the end, on average they accomplish a very similar thing, but Portal has way more unnecessary RNG involved. You can end up getting a 1/1 or 7/7, which is a HUGE difference. Shieldmaiden is solid, because it has zero RNG involved. More ways of getting Armor seems like a great theme for Warrior and even though Shieldmaiden is kinda boring and straightforward, I still think it should be available.

Varian Wrynn

It’s another Legendary that feels… Legendary. It costs 10 mana, but you get a huge effect with a potential swing. It can be a finisher in more Midrange decks or as a value card in Control decks. The card’s potential is kept in check by its mana cost – it can’t be abused by fast, minion-heavy Warrior decks. And can get punished by opponent’s AoE/drawing 3 might be bad in slow, Control matchups. It’s a card that you really have to think about before putting into your deck and that’s why I like it.

Neutral Cards

So those were all of the Class cards. Now onto the Neutral cards. This time I’ll pick 3 Neutral cards from each expansion that I would like to see in Standard forever. Similarly to the last ones, I’ll pick a single Legendary and two non-Legendaries per expansion (with one exception, you’ll understand why later). Let’s start from the oldest.

Curse of Naxxramas

Unstable Ghoul

Anti-Aggro/board flood tech. Having a cheap, neutral Taunt that’s strong seems very important to me. It can also synergize with minions that want to be damaged – Enrage minions, Acolyte of Pain, Frothing Berserker, and maybe something similar to Grim Patron will be released in the future etc.

Deathlord

Another very cool card that we just don’t see any more. Deathlord was most commonly used in Priest, but I’ve seen Rogues, Druids and Warriors play it too. It’s a very interesting card – you get a huge 2/8 Taunt for 3 mana, but it has potential to backfire heavily. It was also cool card to play in Mill/Fatigue decks, as it gave you a defensive option AND forced opponent to “get rid” of the cards in his deck at the same time.

Kel'Thuzad

Although not very commonly played, I found Kel’Thuzad to be one of the best Legendaries in the game. Getting it on the board when the enemy has no way to kill it was a great win condition in slow decks. It really incentivized you to make trades against certain decks, as dropping Kel’Thuzad and trading the whole board away + getting it back again was a massive swing. Plus it’s one of the most important characters from the lore, so I feel like it deserves a spot in Hearthstone roster forever.

Goblins vs Gnomes

Annoy-o-Tron

Some say that it’s the most annoying card from the whole game… Nah, it’s not. But I think that Annoy-o-Tron was a really cool card. Sure, it could get abused in Mech decks with Mechwarper, but besides them, the fact that we had Divine Shield and a Taunt on one, cheap card makes for very interesting synergies. It’s a great buff target, because buffs synergize nicely with both Taunt and Divine Shield. It’s good at protecting the rest of your board. It’s not a threat by itself, but if you choose the right deck, you can make it pretty strong. And I liked that fact.

Antique Healbot

Priest’s Lightbomb was the class card I would like to see most in Standard. And Antique Healbot is the neutral one. After it was gone, we never really had any strong neutral healing card. Never. Sure, there was Cult Apothecary, but it’s very situational and depends on the enemy being ahead on the board (and you know, when an enemy is ahead on the board you prefer to CLEAR the board than heal yourself). Healbot was a blessing in a lot of decks, it made a lot of decks work. It was best in the classes with no access to strong class healing cards – e.g. it made slower Rogue and Warlock decks possible to play. Right now they have to rely on, let’s face it, the more inconsistent Reno Jackson as their only source of healing. With just a 3/3 body for 5 mana, it couldn’t really by used for anything else than healing yourself and that was what was cool about it – mindlessly going face was much worse when such a solid healing card was available.

Troggzor the Earthinator

It was meant to be one of the best Legendaries in GvG. It turned out that it wasn’t the case. But to be fair, it might be played now with the influx of Arcane Giant / Medivh, the Guardian spell heavy decks. It feels like a solid counter to the spell decks without being overpowered like Loatheb was. If those decks ever start to really dominate the meta, and that’s possible, we need some way to counter them. And it feels like a pretty solid one.

Blackrock Mountain

Blackwing Technician & Blackwing Corruptor

I’ll bundle those two, because keeping them in Standard has a similar purpose – keeping Dragon decks alive. I know that currently Dragon Warrior is one of the most hated decks, but the deck’s strength comes mostly from the Warrior’s early game tempo and once Blood To Ichor, Alexstrasza's Champion and Ravaging Ghoul would be gone, the deck would also be gone or at least be much weaker. I feel like Dragon is such a cool archetype, and since we’re getting some new Dragons and Dragon synergies every expansion, it would be sad to make them all useless in a few months.

Emperor Thaurissan

Alright, this is another controversial choice. But I feel like Emperor Thaurissan makes so many decks work that removing it might make the meta very boring. Basically most of the combo decks would be gone, as a big part of them relies on Thaurissan procs to put the combo in the 10 mana range. Maybe you hate playing against Combo decks, but I feel like every archetype is necessary for a healthy meta game. And Combo decks are rarely top tier meta decks anyway.

The Grand Tournament

Argent Horserider

We can’t forget about faster deck. I feel like Argent Horserider is a solid card that fits into most of them. But it’s not really overpowered. Since it only has 2 attack and costs 3 mana, it can’t really push for heavy amounts of damage early. It promotes the trading game when playing faster decks, because the Divine Shield makes it perfect at killing 2 health minions and still surviving. TGT was really the last expansion that released Charge cards, so I feel like we should at least preserve the most common one.

Twilight Guardian

Similarly to the Blackrock Mountain picks, I feel like Twilight Guardian was a big reason why Dragon decks were being played. Dragons seems like one of the coolest synergies in Hearthstone, especially the slower Dragon decks.  It would add a solid Dragon core to the Classic set and the 1-2 Dragon cards per expansion should keep it going.

Justicar Trueheart

Justicar is one of my favorite Legendaries. Even though it obviously fits Warrior most (while still not being an auto-include), I’ve tried to play it in many different classes – Priest, Mage, even Druid. Upgrading Hero Powers is very cool and fun. It feels sad that we won’t have a way to do that in Standard any more. That’s why I’d love Justicar to stay with us.

The League of Explorers

And here is the exception I was talking about. When it comes to Neutral cards from LoE, I feel like all the explorers should stay with us. Yes, all of them, Sir Finley Mrrgglton, Brann Bronzebeard, Elise Starseeker and Reno Jackson. Each one of them is very balanced. Each one of them has a fun, unique effect. Each one of them fits into different archetypes or even creates new ones. Because of them, LoE remains the favorite expansion of many players. I, for example, love Reno decks. RenoLock is my favorite deck of all time and I’ve played my fair share of Reno Mage, Reno Warrior and Reno Paladin too. And you know the sad part? LoE’s going to rotate out very soon. Since it was released between November and December 2015, it’s rotating out with the first expansion of 2017 – probably in about 6 or 7 months. Arch-Thief Rafaam, while being pretty cool card, got overshadowed by the rest of the LoE Legendaries.

Whispers of the Old Gods

Bilefin Tidehunter

It might seem like a weird choice, but I feel like this is one of the most important cards from the expansion. WoG was very late-game focused, with all the Old Gods, and all of the Deathrattles and such. Bilefin Tidehunter, however, fits the faster, more board-flood decks. Because of the Taunt on the 1/1 it’s much, much stronger than Murloc Tidehunter and has seen some play in the real, competitive decks. Aggro also needs some love.

Nerubian Prophet

I like this card, because it introduced a new mechanic. The moment you draw this card, it’s very weak. 6 mana for a 4/4 – you would never play that. But each turn you wait with it means that it costs one mana less. So after it sits in your hand for a few turns, you can potentially drop it as a heavy tempo 0 mana 4/4. It might get some more combos in the future, just like now it works well with Evolve.

N'Zoth, The Corruptor

If I had to pick my favorite Old God, it would definitely be N’Zoth. C'Thun is pretty hard to get into the Standard, as it would also require moving all his Cultists etc. Yogg-Saron, Hope's End I really want to rotate out as fast as it can, because it adds a lot of unnecessary RNG to the game. With him being a very popular card, a lot of the games end up with a complete RNGfest. Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound is.. pretty gimmicky and also very random. You can’t really build a deck around it and one of the only ways to make it work is to combo it with Barnes, which I also don’t like. N’Zoth, on the other hand, seems like the best choice. Sure, it’s a big finisher and a big swing card, BUT first you need to build a deck around it (which is also a huge tell that you play N’Zoth, so enemy can save removal for it), then you need to draw AND play all your Deathratttles first. So it’s like a super late game win condition. I don’t think that any N’Zoth deck will be broken, as they’re super slow and late-game oriented. But playing against one with a slow deck makes for a really fun matchup, where you need to know which removals to save, how much can you push him, whether you want to take the game to fatigue or finish it earlier, maybe which minions you want to steal (e.g. with your own Sylvanas Windrunner or Entomb). That’s why I’d love N’Zoth to stay in Standard.

One Night in Karazhan

Netherspite Historian

Again, following the Dragon synergy thing. I’m not sure whether this or Book Wyrm would be a better choice, but still, I think that it would be good to get one of those. Neither is overpowered, neither can be abused by Aggro decks, both are interesting and require some thinking (both when playing them and playing against them).

Avian Watcher

I think that Avian Watcher is one of the more unique Neutrals of the expansion. It adds some more Secret synergy. It has seen play in both Control Mage and Secret Hunter. In both of those decks it feels pretty solid. With more Secrets and possibly more Secret synergies in the future, Avian Watcher would be a good fit into the Classic roster, as a potential core of future slower Secret decks.

Medivh, the Guardian

Karazhan feels like it’s supposed to be based around spells. That’s why I’ve picked Medivh as the Legendary I’d like to see in Classic. It’s great in any spell-based deck, but it’s not as broken as Arcane Giant (which I haven’t picked for obvious reasons). It’s slow at the start and then lets you rebuild the tempo thanks to the random minions you summon on top of removing your opponent’s board with spells. It’s also very interesting mechanic, one we have seen before in Summoning Stone, but it wasn’t easy to make it work. We also get a unique, neutral weapon, so it adds some depth to deck-building – if this ever gets out of control, it can get countered by Acidic Swamp Ooze or Harrison Jones.

Closing

I think that there might be even more cards that deserve the spot in Classic so they stay with us in Standard forever. In a perfect world, Blizzard would just add a few more successful, fun, unique cards from every expansion to Standard when they rotate it out. This way there would be no need for possible reprints and they could balance the core set this way. If the core set would get too big in the future, they could cut a few cards from it. That’s the advantage of having a virtual card game, the advantage they aren’t using for some reason. The ability to change stuff however they want. Change a card’s text? No problem. Add a card to another set? Why not.

Right now, Classic set is far from being balanced. Let’s take Priest’s AoE as an example. If they want to make the class playable, they would need to release a new AoE board wipe again and again and again, as the old ones rotate out. Same for the Shaman’s early game. They went overboard with it, but anyone who plays the game for more than a year remembers Shaman as an absolutely garbage class, worst one in Constructed. The main reason was a lack of solid early game – they had nice mid/late game options, but they just couldn’t keep up and ended up Hero Powering for the first few turns most of the time. So in order to keep the class viable, they will need to add more and more and more early game. Once they stop and things rotate out – Shaman will be useless again. So why not add some of that early game (not all, obviously) to Classic in order to keep the class viable?

Do you agree? What are the card YOU would like see in Classic? If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below. If you want to be up to date with my articles, you can follow me on Twitter.

Good luck on the ladder and until next time!