How Good Is the Darkmoon Races Mini-Set?

Blizzard intends to release a mini-set to complement each expansion from now on, and that should hopefully result in a new Hearthstone meta six times a year instead of three times a year, thereby making the game more fresh and exciting. We have now had some time to play with the first mini-set, Darkmoon Races, and while the meta is still shaping up, having millions of people test the new cards brings some rapid results.

In this article, I’ll examine the overall effect of the mini-set on the meta as well as which cards from the mini-set are worth playing with. Did the mini-set succeed in refreshing the meta even though it is only 35 cards? How many of those 35 cards are actually useful?

Let’s take a look at the effects of the mini-set class-by-class.

Demon Hunter

The most important new card for Demon Hunter is Illidari Studies. It has proven to be an effective tool for all slower Demon Hunter archetypes, such as Soul Demon Hunter and Lifesteal OTK Demon Hunter. Discovering Outcast cards and discounting them – thus enabling Skull of Gul'dan for mere five mana, for example – has been proven a valuable asset.

Meanwhile, Felfire Deadeye has struggled to find a place so far. There are some promising results with the card in weaker decks, but none of the mainstream meta decks have found room for it yet. It is a card to watch out for in the coming weeks.

Luckysoul Hoarder has failed to impress in Demon Hunter so far. The card itself is fine, there is a ton of value packed into it, but the current meta is too aggressive for a Corrupt minion that does not do anything immediately. It waits for better days.

There were some expectations for Felsaber to perform thanks to its big stat line, but the drawback has proven to be too much: Demon Hunter is already doing well when it can attack, and struggles when it cannot, and Felsaber exacerbates this issue instead of mitigating it. It will likely completely fade out from the meta.

The new cards provided no fundamental changes to Demon Hunter. The class is doing OK with aggro and soul variants, and while Illidari Studies has found a place in some of the decks, it merely complements their existing win conditions.

Druid

Druid is actually back in the meta thanks to the mini-set, and that is no small feat! Arbor Up is the name of the game, it’s just totally bonkers and can be included in a wide variety of Druid decks for some instant board generation and buffs. Spell Druid just returned back to the meta thanks to this card alone.

Another Druid card that people expected much from is Dreaming Drake. It is not yet obvious what is the best way to make use of the card, but using it as one of the enablers of Breath of Dreams seems to work out well and the card is consistently among the best cards in the decks where it is played. Is the Dragon package overall worth it for Druid? Now, that’s a more difficult question, but Dreaming Drake is definitely strong.

Guidance and Resizing Pouch did not look too strong before release, and after tens of thousands of games played with the cards, they look even worse now.

Hunter

Hunter got the shortest straw when it comes to the mini-set. Resizing Pouch, Bola Shot, Felfire Deadeye, and Saddlemaster. That’s one sad set of cards. When none of your new cards fit in your Highlander deck, you know there’s a problem.

Hunter as a class is fine. Highlander Hunter is still solid. It just didn’t get anything worth playing now.

Mage

Mage got some of the better cards in the mini-set, but their lasting effect on the meta is still difficult to evaluate: Conjure Mana Biscuit and Imprisoned Phoenix have brought Cyclone Mage and Mozaki OTK Mage back to the meta, but both of the decks are still at the risk of falling off again as neither has managed to reach a stable above-50% win rate. Cyclone Mage is closer than the OTK variant, and if the deck can be fine-tuned just a little bit, it might become a permanent fixture.

Meanwhile, Glacier Racer has failed to do anything at all and Keywarden Ivory looks hopelessly slow right now. Keywarden has some upsides, but unless the meta slows down, it is unlikely to see regular play even in Highlander Mage.

Secret Mage and Highlander Mage remain the most successful Mage archetypes, so unless Cyclone Mage finds a bit more strength from somewhere, it looks like a temporary blip in the meta.

Paladin

Paladin is one of the big winners of the mini-set. The class was already doing well, and the mini-set actually elevated one of its meme archetypes – Duel Paladin – to the status of a real deck. Barricade and Runaway Blackwing add just enough new defenses and another big minion to make the archetype good.

And that’s not even all! Murloc Paladin is back as well on the back of Rally! and Crabrider.

Paladin has such an abundance of decks to choose from right now, as its mainstays Broom Paladin and Pure Paladin also continue to perform well, and actually remain the most powerful Paladin archetypes, even though Duel Paladin and Murloc Paladin now outperform the best decks of several other classes.

Pure Paladin received Libram of Judgment as a strong new addition: Broom Paladin can use it too, but it performs at a lower level in that deck.

The only Paladin card that remains a mystery is Imprisoned Celestial. Perhaps it could have found a way to shine in a different class, but the current abundance of powerful tools available to Paladin leaves it out in the cold.

Priest

Priest has not been doing well lately, and Darkmoon Races has not been enough to make Priest great even though Priest received one of the better packages of cards in the mini-set.

Hysteria is a sweet removal tool that can be used in many ways. It reminds me of Defile in the way you can set up different board states that can be cleared by it, and it can also be used to immediately destroy one of your minions if you want to ensure it will not be silenced.

Rally! has received a lot of hype, and playing against a Priest who keeps resurrecting Sethekk Veilweaver and Nazmani Bloodweaver with it can be excruciating. Luckily, most decks in the meta are aggressive enough to just kill the Priest long before that becomes an issue.

The dark horse of the new Priest set is Dark Inquisitor Xanesh. So far, the exact right mix to build a Corrupt Priest has not been found, but Xanesh’s performance in every deck it is played in is through the roof. It may end up enabling the entire archetype, and even if the archetype remains in its current state of slightly below 50% win rate, Xanesh is absolutely indispensable to achieve even those results.

Lightsteed has not been able to revive Tempo Priest. Maybe in the next set.

Rogue

As predicted by everyone and their dog, Nitroboost Poison is really, really good. Weapon Rogue is back, and even though Whirlkick Rogue is still around, this Tinker's Sharpsword Oil lite has become an incredibly popular and effective way to play Rogue. Rogue burst is back, and it’s good.

Rogue is in a similar position to Paladin: there are just so many great archetypes to choose from. While Weapon Rogue and Whirlkick Rogue are getting the attention right now, the mini-set also gave Secret Rogue Sparkjoy Cheat, and it’s really good. Shenanigans, not so much.

Keywarden Ivory is just way too slow for where Rogue is going right now.

Shaman

The new additions to Shaman have been somewhat lackluster. The cards are not terrible as such, but they have very limited applications and they do not fit into the current dominant Shaman archetype, Aggro Shaman.

Landslide is the strongest new Shaman card, but it requires overload and preferably also Spell Damage to be strong, so the number of decks it can be played in is limited.

Mistrunner is another card that shows some promise, but what would be the deck where it goes to? Right now, Totem Shaman seems to be the answer. Totem Shaman is also the only deck so far that has been able to make Moonfang work. Perhaps the misfits can shine together as the archetype is fine-tuned.

Imprisoned Phoenix seems weaker in Shaman than in Mage so far, and Guidance is pretty much useless regardless of the class you play it in.

Warlock

Warlock got a number of interesting cards in Darkmoon Races. Both dual-class cards available to Warlock, Hysteria and Luckysoul Hoarder, are looking strong for the class, and the Warlock Legendary minion Envoy Rustwix has been one of the surprises in the set: the card is actually looking strong! I’m a little sad that it also buffed Warlock’s nemesis Rogue as a great find from Jandice Barov though.

Warlock also loves the additional survivability from Armor Vendor: as a class that often damages itself, cards that provide healing are highly coveted by Warlocks.

On the other hand, Backfire has been weaker than expected. It turns out that shooting yourself in the face in an aggressive meta can have dire consequences.

Warrior

Warrior’s new cards are either hits or misses: the dual-class cards Nitroboost Poison and Barricade are strong support for some of the class’s weaker archetypes: Aggro Warrior and Big Warrior. Both have already succeeded in making their archetypes somewhat more viable, even if the mainstays like ETC Warrior have remained on top.

Warrior’s class cards, Spiked Wheel and Ironclad, on the other hand, have failed rather miserably. They would belong to an aggressive Warrior deck that somehow finds time to get some armor going too, and that is just not going to happen.

Conclusions

How strong are the Darkmoon Races mini-set cards? Based on the above, I would say that they are actually pretty strong. Two of them, Arbor Up and Nitroboost Poison, have single-handedly brought respective archetypes to the top of the meta. Almost half of the remaining set, 14 cards, have already proven themselves as solid cards, although not all of them are in top-tier decks. Another nine cards could still rise up to see play, but their fate is still uncertain. Only ten cards from the mini-set seem to be too weak to have any chance.

Here is the full breakdown of the individual new cards:

Meta-defining: 1 Rare, 1 Common – Arbor Up and Nitroboost Poison.

Strong: 2 Legendary, 7 Rare, 5 Common –  Illidari Studies, Dreaming Drake, Barricade, Runaway Blackwing, Rally!, Crabrider, Libram of Judgment, Hysteria, Dark Inquisitor Xanesh, Luckysoul Hoarder, Sparkjoy Cheat, Landslide, Envoy Rustwix, and Armor Vendor.

Uncertain or waiting for the right meta: 2 Legendary, 1 Epic, 2 Rare, 4 Common – Felfire Deadeye, Keywarden Ivory, Conjure Mana Biscuit, Imprisoned Phoenix, Imprisoned Celestial, Lightsteed, Mistrunner, Moonfang, and Deathwarden.

Weak: 4 Rare, 6 Common – Felsaber, Guidance, Resizing Pouch, Bola Shot, Saddlemaster, Glacier Racer, Shenanigans, Backfire, Spiked Wheel, and Ironclad.

What about the meta overall? With two brand new archetypes rising to the top, there are plenty of adjustments taking place, so the meta has clearly changed a lot. Furthermore, Darkmoon Races has promoted several tier-two or tier-three archetypes, such as Duel Paladin, Big Warrior, Corrupt Priest, and Murloc Paladin, so the full extent of the changes it has brought is not limited to the top-tier decks.

From the point of view of meta changes and overall power level, Darkmoon Races looks like a success story so far.