When I started working on this article, Mojomaster Zihi looked destined for a bright future. Shudderwock OTK combos were all over the place. Ramping Druids ran rampant with their King Togwaggle, Malygos, and Ultimate Infestation. There was only one neutral card that could save us. One shining beacon in the night. One Mojomaster Zihi.
It looks like Mojomaster Zihi was indeed supposed to be the answer to delaying combo decks and giving board-based decks a fighting chance. I guess it was not enough. Out of the blue, Blizzard dropped huge nerfs on us, completely wiping out multiple archetypes and changing the landscape of the game. Don’t get me wrong, these nerfs are the best thing that has happened to Hearthstone in several months. While they may not be perfect, they truly changed the game and removed many decks that had remained dominant from expansion to expansion. The only real casualty, so it seems, is the poor Mojomaster.
In this article, I take a look at why Mojomaster Zihi is needed in the game, what it is capable of, when it can shine, and when it just won’t make the cut.
The “Fun and Interactive” Problem
Hearthstone has problems with combo decks. The game does not allow for interaction during the opponent’s turn, and therefore functional combo decks will always suffer from being “fun and interactive” in the most sarcastic sense possible. There are no instant spells you could cast to interrupt the opponent’s combo, or anything else you can do about them, really. Either the combo deck survives long enough to simply win the game, or you manage to squeeze in enough damage to kill them before they get there.
This makes the interaction between combo and control decks highly problematic: “control” decks simply do not have tools that would allow them to control the win condition of combo decks in any way. Only Warlock has been given some tools in the form of Rin, the First Disciple, Gnomeferatu, Demonic Project, and Void Contract.
Midrange decks do not fare much better. You need to be fast or you die. Once upon a time, Loatheb and Dirty Rat afforded some level of protection, but they only roam the Wild format nowadays. When facing countless board clears, the best you can hope for is to at least have some Carnivorous Cubes in the deck.
There are also some more targeted hate cards in the game, such as Skulking Geist and Nerubian Unraveler. The problem with such cards is that they are often game-winning against their specific target – someone relying on Naturalize or Inner Fire in the case of Skulking Geist, for example – and really bad in any other matchup. Even in their target matchups, it becomes a race to find the game-winning card in time.
Overall, combo decks are very difficult to balance. With limited to no counterplay, combo decks are often either bad or great, there is no in-between.
I am often asked whether Hearthstone should allow for interaction during the opponent’s turn, but that would take away one of the main attractions of Hearthstone: its smooth and simple gameplay. You know that your turn is your time, the opponent’s turn is their time. You know when you need to pay attention and when you can even do something else. And you know that everything progresses quickly and smoothly throughout the game. These are major upsides that make Hearthstone accessible and fun to a large audience.
All the combo-disruption cards mentioned above have been Blizzard’s attempts to solve these issues without compromising their fluid overall game design. None have been completely successful, and Blizzard keeps iterating on their card designs to find good answers that make the game more fun. This is where Mojomaster Zihi comes in. It is the latest iteration of combo disruption, with a bit of an anti-control twist thrown in the mix.
Mojomaster Zihi, Delayer of Combos and Board Clears
Mojomaster Zihi is one of the most interesting combo disruption tools Blizzard has developed. By setting the available mana of both players to five (effectively six on their next turn), it can delay any late-game cards from making an appearance, sometimes for multiple turns. There are lots of powerful cards you might rather avoid, such as Shudderwock, Ultimate Infestation, Voidlord, Twisting Nether, Bloodreaver Gul'dan, Psychic Scream, Uther of the Ebon Blade, Frost Lich Jaina, and Zul'jin.
Of course, while you prevent your opponent from playing these cards, you also lock them from yourself for some turns. This is where the strategy part comes in: maybe you can squeeze in your The Lich King on the turn before Mojomaster and still have that while your opponent will not get to their nine- or ten-mana play. Maybe you can make better use of low mana totals with Twilight Drake, Mountain Giant, or Hooked Reaver, while your opponent has no powerful plays available.
With Druid being one of the top classes for years and no end for that in sight, it seemed that Mojomaster Zihi would become a staple in multiple archetypes. However, the Druid fell off its pedestal with the nerfs, and so did Mojomaster Zihi’s prospects of becoming the most played card in the game.
With thousands of games played with the card, we now have a very good picture of what Mojomaster Zihi is capable of:
- It is amazing against Druid. Locking Druid from Ultimate Infestation and cutting back their ramp advantage are huge upsides, and Mojomaster is one of the best-performing cards against Druid in any list it is played in.
- It is good against Priest on curve, less so later on. If Priest has not found Mass Hysteria and you push Psychic Scream back a turn, that can just win the game right there. Later on, it is much more difficult to find value from the card. The next opportunity comes several turns later when you have managed to build another board just large enough for the Priest to want to intervene.
- It is mediocre against Hunter. When you get to a good position to play Mojomaster against Hunter to stall Zul'jin, it is a great card. However, Hunter has lots of archetypes, and not all of them even run Zul’jin, not to mention that the ones that do may just kill you long before preventing Zul’jin even becomes a consideration. Great winrate when played, but the many situations where it is not useful means that overall Mojomaster is not very effective against Hunter.
- It is mediocre against Mage. Once again, when you play it just in time to prevent Frost Lich Jaina, it’s awesome, but there are many situations where you would have rather had a different early-game card instead, such as every time you meet aggressive Mage decks.
- It is mediocre against Paladin. Same story yet again. Preventing Uther of the Ebon Blade, awesome stuff. However, many Paladins are not of the OTK variant, and then it does nothing much, they’ll just respond with a Spikeridged Steed. Even most OTK builds will just respond with a Spikeridged Steed to be honest.
- It is not that great against Shaman. With Shudderwock combos gone, it can delay something like Hagatha the Witch, but for the most part, Even Shaman does not mind.
- It is not that great against Warlock. Zoo will just laugh at you, and Even Warlock will drop one of their over-statted four-mana plays while waiting for some more mana.
- It is miserable against Rogue. You might as well shoot yourself in the foot.
- It is miserable against Warrior. Their board clears don’t really cost that much. They can afford to wait to get back to full mana, and they probably enjoy it. Waiting is their game, after all, not yours.
We had some of the makings of a combo meta for a while with all the Druids and Shudderwock Shamans roaming the land. That was fertile ground for Mojomaster Zihi to shine. It is more than that though, because it can also shine in a control meta where control decks rely on expensive late-game cards, such as Frost Lich Jaina. Right now, we have neither of those.
Unfortunately, Mojomaster Zihi has fallen from a near-Zilliax-like status where it could improve a wide variety of decks to a more situational position. It is not quite a new Skulking Geist though: it does not necessarily win its target matchups when played, but it can also be useful in other matchups, as long as your deck is better-equipped to deal with mid-game mana totals than the opponent. It is far more complex and interesting than the Geist, while not as devastating to specific targets. Overall, that seems like a good move from Blizzard on getting the power and overall usability of tech cards to the right level.
Mojomaster Zihi Decks: Even Warlock and Even Paladin
Right now, there are two archetypes that have been able to make good use of Mojomaster Zihi: Even Warlock and Even Paladin Both of them want to be proactive, want to play threats and attack, and have great plays available for six mana or less, including four mana – the amount you can spend together with Zihi when you’re at full mana. Zihi can be used to prevent the opponent’s powerful late-game plays, prevent combos, or simply to set the clock back a little and take advantage of the pure strength these decks have in the mid-game.
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The current best-performing Even Warlock deck includes Mojomaster Zihi. While getting to Bloodreaver Gul'dan and The Lich King is nice, Even Warlock can mitigate the downsides of Mojomaster Zihi in many matchups simply by being able to do more powerful plays with low mana totals than its opponents: Hooked Reaver, Twilight Drake, and Mountain Giant are all incredible cards that can be played together with Mojomaster Zihi or immediately after it, and opponents may struggle to find answers to them.
The second-best performing Even Paladin list right now also includes Mojomaster Zihi. PapaJason actually hit #6 Legend with this list before the nerfs, but its post-nerfs performance has remained stellar. Its curve tops out at a lone The Lich King, every other card in the deck can be played right after Mojomaster Zihi.
Powerful, Albeit Situational Tool
Mojomaster Zihi looked incredible before the nerfs. While it was not touched, the nerfs were a reality check on the card, which still has power, but now faces a much less favorable meta. It can still get its moment if the meta changes more towards combos and expensive cards, but in the current meta, it also requires your deck to be able to abuse resetting the mana totals back to the mid-game against regular opponents and not only against its prime targets. Even Warlock and Even Paladin have strong tools to do exactly this, which is why they are the only archetypes where Mojomaster Zihi has proven post-nerfs results. There are rumors of Mojomasters in a variety of other decks as well, such as Even Shaman and even Big Spell Mage. So far, these experiments lack the sample sizes to prove their worth.
What has your experience with Mojomaster Zihi been like? Do you still use it? Have you removed it from your decks after the nerfs? Have you been able to make it work in some other archetype? Let me know in the comments!
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
I thought the set was released about three weeks ago… wont that card be available for the next two years or so?
Yes, it will be available in the Standard format until late April 2020.
The latest set of the year only stays in standard for 16 months.