Key Cards Rotating Out in 2021 (Year of the Gryphon) – Part 1 (Neutral Cards)

Year of the Phoenix is coming to an end, and Year of the Gryphon is starting soon. With the recent news about the introduction of a Core Set, it will also be the biggest rotation in the history of Hearthstone, given that a big part of Basic/Classic set is also out.

Standard rotation is always a massive event. With three expansions (this time 3 expansions + adventure) dropping out of Standard, its impact on the meta cannot be overstated. The sets that we’re losing (Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum and Descent of Dragons + Galakrond’s Awakening) had a lot of staples that we’ve seen in nearly every single meta since their release. Those cards disappearing means that multiple archetypes will cease to exist, which will, in turn, create space for new decks to rise up. It’s also important that Core Set will contain “only” 235 cards, compared to 380 from the Basic + Classic, so we’re “losing” another 140+ cards there. Even though we’re gaining 135 cards from Forged in the Barrens expansion, Standard players will still have access to around 450 less cards than they do right now. Of course, not all of the rotating cards have seen play, but a substantial amount of them did.

In this article (or to be more precise a series of three articles), I will showcase some of the important cards that are rotating out. What qualifies as “important”, you might ask? Cards that have seen a decent amount of meta play, were key to certain archetypes’ existence or are just good standalone cards that would probably see play after rotation. Cards that have only seen play in meme/off-meta decks or just didn’t see much play at all are excluded. I also didn’t add cards that have previously seen play, but become unplayable after some syneriges already rotated out or they got nerfed. Yes, the definition is not clear, but I’ve tried my best to include cards that will be most missed from the standpoint of post-rotation Standard format. If I forgot about a certain card, let me know in the comments and I’ll add it.

Part 2 – Demon Hunter, Druid, Hunter, Mage and Paladin Cards

Part 3 – Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior Cards

Neutral – Basic/Common

Looking at Neutral commons, it’s clear that this part of the rotation will hurt Aggro decks most. Beaming Sidekick, Blazing Battlemage and Southsea Deckhand have seen play in a variety of aggressive decks. Battlemage in particular has been the most popular 1-drop and one of the most popular cards over the last year. 2/2 statline, for the most part, worked better than 1/3 because it was a much bigger early game threat to opponent’s life total.

Desert Hare could honestly be a Shaman class card and no one would notice. That’s because the card was basically designed to take advantage of the Evolve mechanics, and so it has seen play any time Shaman could turn them into random 4-drops (be it with Evolve during Doom in the Tomb event or more recently with Boggspine Knuckles). Similarly, Dread Corsair has seen play in Evolve Shaman, but not only – it was also present in many weapon-oriented Rogue builds, and it’s a pretty significant loss to any weapon-based deck.

We’re also losing a Dragon (& synergy) package of Scalerider, Evasive Feywing / Big Ol' Whelp / Evasive Wyrm / Evasive Drakonid. It’s true that those weren’t the most popular Dragons, but they have seen some play, mainly in Highlander decks. Between those and many other Dragons/Dragon synergies rotating out, I don’t expect to have any Dragon decks until the next big expansion featuring this minion type.

Novice Engineer, while probably not as popular as Loot Hoarder (which is staying in Standard), has been a go-to card draw in many decks, mostly Combo builds that wanted to cycle as quickly as possible to find the right cards. Maybe it wasn’t a necessary card, but it’s been quite iconic and came in handy multiple times over the years.

Bone Wraith was a solid Taunt option, mostly utilized in Highlander decks, which had more slots to fill. It was never outstanding or gamechanging, but it filled its role quite well. It was probably most commonly seen in Highlander Mage.

Galakrond Heroes are gone, and so are their synergies. They were really useful in multiple decks ever since their release, but would obviously be useless without Galakrond cards themselves.

While Serpent Egg is gone, we’re actually getting Nerubian Egg back in Standard, which is for the most part a superior version.

Neutral – Rare

Now onto Rare cards, we’re losing a few heavy hitters. Starting with Wild Pyromancer, which was a Priest’s staple for YEARS. While not every single Priest build wanted it, if you built a Control version, you usually wanted to run Wild Pyromancer as a cheap form of removal. Outside of Priest, it has seen a bunch of play in other classes like Paladin or Druid.

Questing Adventurer was out of the meta for a long time, but it made a comeback some time ago as a win condition in slower Rogue strategies (slower for Rogue – builds like Whirlkick/Secret are still pretty fast all things considered). The class has a pretty easy time buffing it to crazy stats, so if not removed immediately, it was usually lethal in one or two turns.

Twilight Drake has been a staple for multiple builds. Mostly played in Dragon decks, the card has also seen a decent amount of play in slow Warlock builds thanks to the class’ Hero Power – holding a big hand is a regular day for Warlock, so Twilight Drakes usually dropped as 4/7’s or even bigger. Cobalt Spellkin is another Dragon and while different than Twilight Drake, it shared a slot in some builds. It focused more on value and has seen play in classes that have some powerful 1 mana cards. Most commonly seen in Priest, but also in Mage or even Demon Hunter. Eventually it was replaced by Wandmaker in faster builds, but it will still be a significant loss for certain strategies.

Hoard Pillager loss is a serious hit to decks that relied on a specific weapon to perform their strategy. Two best examples would be Bomb Warrior (which wanted as many hits with Wrenchcalibur as possible) and Evolve Shaman (same thing, but with Boggspine Knuckles). In the right decks, the card was worth A LOT – you could get a weapon for the same cost or at a discount, with a “free” 4/2 body attached.

Faceless Corruptor was really broken when it was first printed as a 5/4. After getting nerfed to 4/4, it was no longer so dominating, but it has still seen a decent amount of play, mostly in Midrange decks that could afford to spare a small minion and turn it into something better.

Khartut Defender was a great defensive option in many builds. While a 3/4 Taunt for 6 mana doesn’t seem great, it was a bit like Sludge Belcher with a bunch of healing attached. Thanks to Reborn, you healed for 6, which was a big deal especially in classes without access to tons of healing options (e.g. Warlock or Mage). Slow, defensive decks will certainly miss it.

Exotic Mountseller is another card that has really only seen play in a single class – but oh boy, it packed a punch. For quite some time, Spell Druid with Mountsellers as one of its main win conditions was very popular in the meta. Because of multiple 0-1 mana spells it ran, including some that even gained mana, you could summon a board full of random 3-Cost Beasts quite easily, and then possibly buff them to make it harder for the opponent to remove. While new Druid decks are built around different win cons, Mountseller has proven itself a great card in the class if it ever comes back.

And finally, Questing Explorer is rotating out, but so are the Quests, and they come in a package. It has been vital to the viability of some Quests decks in the past, such as Battlecry Shaman.

Neutral – Epic

Probably the biggest overall loss when looking at Neutral Epics is Doomsayer. The card hasn’t seen that much play recently, but over the years it’s been a staple part of multiple metas (mostly used as an anti-Aggro / stall tool) and I wouldn’t be surprised if it made a comeback after rotation (which will – obviously – no longer be possible).

Another big Classic loss is Sea Giant. It was probably the most balanced out of the three Giants (Mountain Giant, Molten Giant and Sea Giant). The card has seen a decent amount of play in decks that flooded the board. Most recently, it was commonly a part of Evolve Shaman lists, but previously it was played in Zoo Warlock or some Paladin decks.

Kobold Stickyfinger has seen quite a lot of play recently, because we had decks running powerful weapons in the past few metas. However, given that the base weapon removal card – Acidic Swamp Ooze – stays in the game, losing Stickyfinger is not the end of the world.

Magic Carpet, Vulpera Scoundrel, Escaped Manasaber and Batterhead have all seen a decent amount of play, but they were mostly supplementary cards and not stuff you built your strategy around. I felt that they were played enough to deserve a spot on this list, but losing them won’t have any substantial meta impact.

Neutral – Legendary

Highlander decks are no more. At least until Blizzard puts some synergies back into Core Set or prints new ones, that is. Zephrys the Great and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza were the backbone of Highlander decks. I’m pretty sure that they were tried out in every single class with at least moderate success, even those without Class-specific synergy (such as Dinotamer Brann in Hunter). On top of that, Zephrys in particular has even seen a decent amount of play OUTSIDE of Highlander decks. Those cards rotating out will have tremendous meta implications, as going for a full singleton deck will no longer be a viable strategy.

Another huge loss is that of high cost, Legendary Dragons. All of the Classic ones are rotating out, but realistically only two of them were relevant – Alexstrasza and Malygos. Both mostly associated with combo decks – Alexstrasza either to set up a combo by putting the opponent down to 15 health, or to stall the game by healing yourself up. And Malygos… well, we all know how +5 Spell Damage on the board can end. All of the Legendary Dragons are getting new versions in Core Set, and they will sort of be based on the old ones, but not entirely. For example,  Alexstrasza the Life-Binder will be better in Control decks, but not necessarily in Combo (if your opponent will be at 30, dealing 8 damage will only put them at 22 and not 15). Similarly, Malygos the Spellweaver might be an interesting option in slow, spell-heavy decks, but again – you won’t be able to build a Combo deck around it, because it no longer gives Spell Damage.

Talking about Combo decks – Jepetto Joybuzz is gone too. The card maybe not activated, but made some combos easier. Drawing your Combo pieces and discounting them to 1 mana was a huge deal. E.g. 1 mana Malygos allowed players to do some really interesting combos. It has seen some play in a few different Combo decks, most prominently in Druid.

Archmage Vargoth was given out for free before Rise of Shadows, so it’s been in Standard for almost 2 years now. And over that time, it has seen play in at least a few decks. Whenever you played some spells you would like to repeat, Vargoth was your man. Doubling on card draw? Sure. Reviving another minion with Priest (or maybe another bunch of minions, thanks Mass Resurrection)? No problem. Casting another board clear to deal with all the minions? There you go. While it hasn’t seen common play in a while, it had many uses over its time in Standard.

Siamat was one of the most popular Legendaries at one point, but its usability has dropped down as the power level was increasing. It’s a well-rounded card, but it doesn’t excel at anything – that’s why over time it got replaced by more specialized options. I’m sure that it would see play after this rotation (since power level will drop down considerably), but it will no longer be available.

Archivist Elysiana used to be a Control decks staple back when the meta was much slower. Adding 10 extra cards to your deck after hitting fatigue meant that if your opponent couldn’t do the same – they usually lost the match. It got so ridiculous that players were running Youthful Brewmaster to do the same thing again, adding a total of 20 cards to the deck, sometimes even leading to matches ending in a draw. After the card got nerfed to 9 mana (so it was no longer possible to bounce it back), it dropped some popularity, but it was still a staple in certain builds like Control Warrior or Control Shaman. It hasn’t seen a lot of play in the last couple of expansions, mostly because a) Control decks were no longer that popular and b) Control decks actually got win conditions other than outvaluing the opponent (like ETC or Silas combos in Warrior). Still, Elysiana could still make a comeback if the meta was right… but maybe it’s for the best that it will no longer be in Standard.

Captain Greenskin is gone, but it’s not a huge deal, because two classes that were most likely to use it (Rogue and Warrior) still have Doctor Krastinov available, and then the card might make a comeback in a future Core Set once Krastinov rotates out.

King Phaoris is a “full board in a single card” type of card, and it worked quite well in certain decks like Quest Druid. However, it was kind of restrictive, because you needed a deck that can play the slow game, doesn’t mind running a 10-Cost card and also runs enough big spells. Outside of Quest Druid, it was briefly played in Paladin with Prismatic Lens – it was an off-meta deck, and sort of an early version of the recently popular Ramp Paladin.

And finally, Kronx Dragonhoof is in the same vein as other Galakrond synergy cards. They were really impactful, but they come as a package – synergy cards are useless without Galakronds, and Galakronds are… well, maybe not useless, but much worse without synergy cards.