Is the Deadmines Mini-Set Worth Purchasing?

Hearthstone’s latest mini-set comes at an odd time, its release pushed back because of Mercenaries, coming off the back of a contentious, questline-focused metagame in United in Stormwind. It’s also the first mini-set where most content creators went with a resounding ‘meh’ in their pre-release previews. So is it worth picking up now that we’ve had a chance to test it in a live environment? Here’s what we’ve found.

In case you weren’t following reveals, you can find a full list of Deadmines mini-set cards here!

Pirates and Parrots, Oh My!

Let’s get the flavor out of the way first because that’s the easiest aspect to evaluate without trying to read the tea leaves of the still-developing metagame. Theming-wise, you’ve got, well, pirates and parrots, Defias cards everywhere.

Mechanic-wise, we now have a couple of Tradable cards that directly provide you with a benefit when they’re shuffled back in the deck, plus the whole parrot thing of repeating a previous effect. The former offers interesting niche benefits in draw-heavy decks, while the latter could easily become a build-around element later down the line.

Overall, the mini-set has been touted as a historically low-power level affair by many content creators. So should you walk the plank? There are decent arguments both for and against it…

Treasure, Plunder and 2000 Gold Pieces

Ultimately, if you’re a dedicated Constructed player, mini-sets are still the best way to spend 2000 gold in the game, guaranteeing you 35 different cards for the next two years. It’s impossible to tell in advance whether the themes and tools on offer here will receive further support down the line: also, something like Need for Greed, for instance, is clearly here as an eventual replacement for Skull of Gul'dan after the rotation, but this won’t come into play for a little while yet.

Even if you’re not that keen on most of the cards in the mini-set, buying it with gold will marginally improve your future pack openings as well, which is also a worthwhile consideration. That said, with a relatively short time until the launch of the next expansion, this might be the first time that targeted card crafting might be a viable alternative considering the profile of the new cards and the texture of the current Questline-dominated metagame.

This is not the time to experiment with janky control decks: the Questlines are still busted and will only get stronger with some of these cards, meaning it’s a miracle if you make it past turn ten. If you’re the Timmy kind of card game player, there really isn’t a point in picking up Deadmines, but it’s not because of anything that’s in the mini-set: it’s because of what’s already been added to the game.

The more likely you are to invest in a pre-order for the next expansion launch, the more sense it makes to pick this up with gold. But there’s also the approach of picking and choosing and crafting, which is only superior if there are really only just a select few relevant cards here. So what’s on offer here that can keep up with the unrelenting pace of the current Standard gameplay, and how much would they set you back Dust-wise?

Mr. Smite and Friends: The Best Cards of the Deadmines Mini-Set

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first: Pirate Warrior got a mandatory upgrade with the mini-set, courtesy of Defias Cannoneer and Mr. Smite. It’s actually the former that makes the deck so strong: +4 damage on every weapon swing split among multiple targets is an insanely effective way of keeping up a board lead in the mid-game.

It turns out that a six-mana bomb is not that incredible when the average match lasts until turn eight or so, and Mr. Smite is often a dead card in your hand: it does work very well as a finisher and can be especially effective in activating the Pirates spawned by the Juggernaut. It’s a good tool to have, but your win rate would still be more than serviceable without it. This, in turn, makes it less likely that you can count on that eventual Dust refund. Still, Charge is Charge, so there’s always the possibility that it gets out of hand, at which point you’d be able to disenchant this bad boy.

For Warlocks, Shadowblade Slinger will inevitably get good at some point (just contrast and compare it with Prize Plunderer), while Wicked Shipment will also be a Zoo staple one day, Lost in the Jungle-style, because of its raw stats and flexibility. In fact, Shadowblade Slinger already started seeing some successful play in Questline Warlock. However, the Zoo considerations aren’t applicable just yet – the deck is getting close, but it’s still missing a few pieces.

Similar embers of potential glow all across the mini-set, even if the cards themselves clearly require further support. The Shaman cards also offer tantalizing possibilities should the metagame get a bit slower. Blackwater Cutlass is just a good aggro card and Edwin, Defias Kingpin is just a good tempo/combo card. Neither has a deck to call home at this juncture. Amulet of Undying could – emphasis: could – become the killing blow of grindy Control Priest decks in the future, too. The list goes on.

There are a few cards as well that are just simply good as standalone stat sticks: Druid of the Reef and Wealth Redistributor pack so many for the cost that it’s just dumb – they will probably see a lot of play during their time in Standard. Meanwhile, the parrots offer interesting build-around options with high potential – whenever a deck centered around one of their themes (like Battlecry, Deathrattle etc) pops up, we can be nearly sure that they will be a part of it.

Conclusion

Still, it can’t be denied that this mini-set has to be seen as more of an investment for the future than anything else, which is an odd purchasing proposition in Hearthstone. However, the ability to pick up all the cards and potentially just dust them later down the line makes even a low-power mini-set one of the most efficient purchases you can make in the game.

Considering how there’s already a deck that clearly got supercharged by the new additions, it’s safe to say there will be more to come. Even a derided set like TGT ended up providing a lot of meta-defining cards later down the line: veteran players will remember how many cards (for example, Alexstrasza’s Champion, Totem Golem, Wyrmrest Agent, Living Roots and Mysterious Challenger) ended up becoming very relevant at some points, long after the community codified the set as a dud. Is it a safe bet that the Deadmines mini-set will follow the same path? The low gold price point and the ability to disenchant makes this a low-stakes, if not entirely foolproof, bet.