Most Important Cards Rotating Out in 2023 (Year of the Wolf) – Part 3 (Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior)

I apologize for getting this one out so late – I planned to finish it over the weekend, but I was visiting my family for Easter and simply didn’t have enough time. I know that the rotation is happening very soon, but I didn’t want the work I put into this article to go to waste, so I’m publishing it anyway. I hope you will enjoy it anyway.

Year of the Hydra is coming to an end – next week, it will be replaced by Year of the Wolf. Standard rotation is always a massive event, its impact on the meta can’t be overstated.

This time we’re losing all of the 2021 expansions and their mini-sets, as well as 73 cards from the Core Set – a total of 583 cards will now be only playable in Wild. Among them, there are a lot of staples that we’ve seen in meta decks since their release. Those cards disappearing means that multiple archetypes will cease to exist, which should, in turn, create space for new decks to rise up.

In this article (or to be more precise a series of three articles), I will showcase some of the most important cards that are rotating out. 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 still see play after rotation. I obviously excluded straight-up bad cards or cards that never got enough synergy to be playable. Then I excluded cards that were only played in meme/off-meta decks that were never viable. I also didn’t include cards that were played in the past, but become unplayable after some synergies already rotated out or they got nerfed. Yes, the definition leaves some wiggle room, 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 reconsider it.

• Part 1 – Neutral Cards
• Part 2 – Demon Hunter, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin
• Part 3 – Priest, Shaman, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior

Priest

Priest has been a class of two completely opposite playstyles in the recent expansions. On the one hand, we had the good, old Control Priest, often in the Questline variant. On the other, there was Shadow Priest with Darkbishop Benedictus at the helm. Most people thought that the class is going to be in a rough shape given that it loses both its main directions – but as it turns out, Benedictus stays in Standard as it rotates straight into the Core Set. That’s a big deal and it pretty much means that Aggro/Shadow Priest is going to still be playable (and probably good). Yes, it loses some stuff – mainly Voidtouched Attendant, but also depending on the specific build cards Najak Hexxen, Shadowcloth Needle, Defias Leper, Twilight Deceptor and Void Shard. But to be perfectly honest, besides Attendant (a real MVP) and Needle (great burn/AoE clear), those aren’t backbreaking losses and the deck should still be fine.

What will have a much harder surviving rotation is the Control variant. Not only its common win condition in slower matchups – Seek Guidance – is gone, but it also no longer have access to a variety of healing cards, removals and other win cons. There should I even start… Healing cards – Gift of the Naaru, Lightshower Elemental, Desperate Prayer, Devouring Plague. Without those, staying alive against Aggro will be much harder. Then we have removals – Xyrella, Condemn (Rank 1), Lightmaw Netherdrake, Undying Disciple. Again, those were really vital against Aggro, and while Priest still has access to other ways to get rid of wide boards, will be missed dearly. Then we have win cons like Mi'da, Pure Light, Xyrella, the Devout or let’s say Amulet of Undying. Looking at the popular Control/Questline Priest builds, they will lose roughly 40-50% of the deck in the rotation. It might not be the end of the world, it’s not the only deck losing cards, but it will need a new direction and win conditions. And I sadly don’t think that the new Overheal package from Festival of Legends provides that, but we’ll see.

And now onto the third main way to play the Priest class – combo decks. Those were also pretty popular in the recent Standard metas, mostly because of one card – Radiant Elemental. Discounting all spells by (1) mana is a big deal, so it inevitably lead to some really strong Priest decks. I won’t cover all of them here, but decks like Boar Priest (Elwynn Boar also rotates out notably), Boon/Bless Priest and Svalna Priest will all be dead. The last one might hurt the most, because the deck was only created last expansion. Or maybe the opposite – if you hated playing against it, you will be happy that it’s gone. And I have to admit that I might be in the latter camp – while playing the deck was pretty fun and involved a lot of difficult choices and decisions, playing against it was INCREDIBLY boring.

Rogue

Rogue will do what Rogue does best – survive. The class is really like the cockroach of Hearthstone, Blizzard can hit it with anything, rotation can get rid of so many good cards, and yet it will still be playable and probably somewhere close to the top of the meta. This rotation is no different – yes, it loses a lot, but it still has the Miracle shell and Concoctions, so it should do fine after rotation.

Let’s address the second most playable Rogue deck first – Thief Rogue. I found it surprising, but Blizzard has decided to leave Tess Greymane in the Core Set. Maybe they plan to give the class more Thief synergies this year, I don’t know. But looking at Festival of Legends meta, the deck will most likely be unplayable. Sure – it already became much weaker after the nerf to the Maestra of the Masquerade + Wildpaw Gnoll combo, but it was still good. But why am I even putting Maestra here if the card is unplayable after the nerf? Well, I thought that it’s worth the inclusion because it no longer being in Standard means that you can now be sure what class you play against. Back when Maestra was popular, the mindgames were often real and I mulliganned wrong, thinking that I’m facing deck X while in truth it was Rogue all along. But right, other Thief Rogue cards. Contraband Stash is the biggest loss by far. Given that the recent Thief Rogue builds put quality over quantity, they didn’t play A LOT of cards from the opponent’s class, but they tried to pick the strong ones. So repeating only 5 wasn’t a big deal – often just 2-3 good cards were enough to make a great Stash. Then we have Reconnaissance and Tooth of Nefarian, both great ways to discover extra cards from other classes to then repeat with Stash or Tess. The deck is pretty much dead now.

Then we’ve got Deathrattle Rogue. It was a Tier 3-4 deck for the most part, but there were a few times when it jumped up to Tier 1 – last time it happened, it had to be nerfed. Right now the deck is probably dead. While Scourge Illusionist stays in Standard, the card alone won’t be enough to carry the deck. Losing Snowfall Graveyard, Counterfeit Blade, Sketchy Information and Forsaken Lieutenant destroys the deck, because you will no longer be able to double up on the Deathrattles. That was the biggest strength of the deck. For example, one Burning Blade Acolyte turning into a 5/8 Taunt was okay, but nothing crazy, most of the decks could deal with that. But playing Acolyte while having Lieutenant on the board and Snowfall Graveyard active to suddenly get 4 of them was more than many builds could answer, thus winning you the game. Maybe the deck gets more support in this Standard year before Illusionist rotates it, but I wouldn’t expect it to be playable in Festival of Legends.

And finally, we have some strong, but more generic Rogue cards that were played in multiple decks across the metas. Edwin, Defias Kingpin, Shadowcrafter Scabbs, Shroud of Concealment, Blackwater Cutlass or Wicked Stab (Rank 1). Those cards are just strong Rogue cards that had many homes and the class will feel their absence a lot. Given that Miracle Rogue is most likely to survive rotation, Cutlass & Edwin are probably the worst ones to lose, as they were staples in that build.

Shaman

I feel like Shaman class has been a real hit or miss in a while now. For the most part, it’s either dominating the meta or stays in Tier 3 or below that. Recently, it has been dominating the meta with Evolve Shaman – which is now playable again thanks to the recent unnerfs. But it’s hard to say whether that domination is going to last into the next expansion.

Maybe let’s start with the most important – Evolve Shaman. The deck, in the current form, is dead anyway because Goldshire Gnoll rotates out. But when looking at other cards the deck is losing, it’s actually looking quite good. Tiny Toys is the biggest loss, but most of its Evolve tools stay intact. Other generic good cards (I’ll talk about those later) also might hurt the deck a bit, but they aren’t necessary for it to work. So the only real issue now is that the deck needs some good Evolve targets – and maybe, just maybe it will stay alive (albeit much weaker without early 10-drops).

Then we should look at the biggest Shaman package – Elementals. Elemental Shaman got its first tools way back in Forged in the Barrens (Arid Stormer, Earth Revenant). It was already a solid deck, but then it kept getting more and more cards – first in Wailing Caverns mini-set (Wailing Vapor, Primal Dungeoneer), then in United in Stormwind (Lilypad Lurker, Granite Forgeborn, Canal Slogger), but then it really, really took off in Fractured in Alterac Valley (Sleetbreaker, Snowfall Guardian). At that point, it was really dominating the meta. The reason why Snowfall Guardian is not on the list is that it was nerfed. Twice. The first nerf only increased its mana cost by (1), which wasn’t enough, but the second (no longer gaining stats for each frozen minion) completely killed the card. While the deck itself hasn’t been viable for a long time now, I’m putting it on the list because it was still a solid budget option for Shaman, and maybe even the best one just a couple of expansions ago.

Then we have the Murlocs. It’s a bit frustrating that Shaman gets enough Murloc synergies for the deck to be almost there, but never enough for it to be fully playable. While we had some Murloc-heavy Shaman decks thanks to the Clownfish (insane card), Murloc package was just an addition, not the main focus. A full-fledged Murloc Shaman deck is there, but it’s Tier 3 at best. Still, that deck is losing quite a bit in this rotation. Firemancer Flurgl rotating out means that the deck will have a much harder time clearing the opponent’s boards now, or dealing the last few points of burn damage necessary. Spawnpool Forager and South Coast Chieftain were some of the best 1-drops and 2-drops for the deck respectively. And finally, Nofin Can Stop Us was a great win condition for Murloc Shaman, a really solid payoff for playing the deck. With those gone (alongside the Neutral Lushwater Scout and Lushwater Murcenary) and Saxophone Soloist being the only new Shaman Murloc in the entire set, I don’t think that the archetype will be playable.

And finally, we have “generic good Shaman cards” package. Those cards – Bolner Hammerbeak, Bru'kan of the Elements, Auctionhouse Gavel, Wildpaw Cavern, Windchill, Frostbite, and Brilliant Macaw were played in tons of different decks across their time in Standard. Probably every single viable Shaman deck ran at least 3-4 of those, they were just strong cards that fit into many archetypes. Bru’kan was a serious, alternative late game win condition, Bolner & Macaw were amazing in decks with strong Battlecries, Wildpaw Cavern was a ton of value over 3 turns (and while losing tempo initially, you started gaining it after the 2nd trigger) and so on. Losing them will be a big deal for Shaman going into Year of the Wolf.

Warlock

Warlock isn’t losing a lot of cards this expansion, but the ones he does are going to kill some decks. However, I would say that the class is looking pretty well going into Festival of Legends – currently strongest Warlock archetype (Imp Warlock) is surviving, while the class gets some new exciting cards to play with.

As for what is rotating out, let’s start with a card that hasn’t been viable for a while, but I feel like it had so much impact over its time in Standard that it’s worth putting it here. The Demon Seed has spawned an entire archetype built around damaging your Hero and restoring health back while stalling the game. The goal was to get the final reward – Blightborn Tamsin – and simply kill your opponent with the rest of your damage cards and/or fatigue. However, the deck was nerfed so many times that it finally dropped out of the meta. It was also banned in Wild – only being recently unbanned after nerfing the requirement to 10/10/10. Even though it wasn’t playable in a long time, I bet that many players are happy that it’s gone anyway in case it ever became viable again.

The deck I already hinted at is Imp Warlock. Like I’ve said, it will 100% survive the rotation, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not losing some tools. Wicked Shipment is probably the biggest one. While summoning 2x 1/1 for 1 mana is not the best effect, the fact that those two are Imps has massive implications for the deck. Two more draws from Impending Catastrophe, +2/+2 from Vile Library and so on. Tradeable also meant that if you got it in the late game but you wanted to look for something else, you could always redraw it for 1 mana. The second biggest loss is definitely Shady Bartender. While the card was only ever played in the pure Imp Warlock version (the one without Curses), it was one of the best win conditions for the deck. Anytime your opponent didn’t clear your small Imps, you could play Bartender and make them much bigger. In the best-case scenario, the card could provide 16/16 worth of stats or even more for just 5 mana, and that “best-case scenario” (or something close to it) was more common than one might expect. On the other hand, Curse variant loses Tamsin Roame, which is a quite big deal. She could gain a lot of free mana and repeat some spells in the late game. The best combo was probably her + Abyssal Wave in the late game, letting you clear boards up to 8 health and give your opponent two Curses. And finally – Imp Swarm (Rank 1). But it’s probably the least worrying loss for the deck, as the card was pretty mediocre anyway. In theory it got better past Turn 5, but you often wanted to play it on curve, where it was simply a more expensive Flame Imp.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have Phylactery Warlock. This one is completely dead in Standard after the rotation. The whole combo was based around playing a Deathrattle minion like Naval Mine, forcing it to die, then repeating that Battlecry multiple times with the likes of Tamsin Roame + Tamsin's Phylactery, Devourer of Souls, and Shallow Grave. But since the deck’s namesake – Phylactery – is rotating out, I don’t see it being viable after that. Sure, you can do some cool combos with Devourer of Souls and Shadow Grave alone, but I don’t think that’s enough to consistently win in most of the matchups. Pair that with losing some of the generic good cards (listed below) and you have a dead archetype.

And for the end, we have the “generic good cards” package. Those cards have seen play in lots of Warlock decks over their time in Standard and they would still likely be played if not for the rotation. First – Tamsin Roame. I already mentioned her twice, but she had an ever wider appeal. Pretty much every slow Warlock deck played her, and even some faster ones like Curse Imp Warlock. Her effect was simply very, very strong. Then we have Dreadlich Tamsin, another pretty universal card. Instant board clear and an upgraded Hero Power providing extra tempo from 3/3’s made her playable in tons of builds. Entitled Customer was a premium board clear for slower decks with bigger hand sizes. Touch of the Nathrezim was played in nearly every Warlock deck – a small minion removal combined with okay healing in a card that really, really needs that healing turned out to be a strong spell.  Runed Mithril Rod was nerfed twice – first it was completely overpowered, then it was a bit overpowered, and finally – at 5 mana – it was too slow for most of the decks to run. But some still did quite successfully, such as the aforementioned Phylactery Warlock. Grimoire of Sacrifice was an efficient board clear that could be duplicated with Tamsin or used to trigger Deathrattle of a minion you wanted to die (like Naval Mine). Solid card played in many decks. And the last one is Demonic Assault – there’s not much to say about it, it looks pretty underwhelming, but it turns out that two 1/3 Taunts are a bit hard to get through and 3 extra damage meant that Warlock could remove something from hand or deal that sometimes necessary burn damage.

Warrior

And then Warrior. Oh boy, the class is losing A LOT of cards. And when I say that it might not be getting enough in return in Festival of Legends, many would definitely agree with me. It’s true that many of the Warrior cards that are rotating out aren’t playable RIGHT NOW, but if we wanted to limit this list to those that have seen competitive play in the last couple of months, the list would be pretty short.

Maybe let’s start with the longest package first – Pirate Warrior. I’m just gonna list them here – Raid the Docks, Shiver Their Timbers!, Cargo Guard, Bloodsail Deckhand, Harbor Scamp, Defias Cannoneer, Stormwind Freebooter, Stonemaul Anchorman. Yeah, that’s a long list. All of those cards were at some point playable in Questline Pirate Warrior – and frankly most of them still are. The deck is just a shadow of its former glory, at only around ~47% WR on the ladder, but it could have been worse. Pirate Warrior is one of the Warrior’s longest-standing archetypes, and it will be once more gone from Standard. While the class still has some Pirates left, they won’t have any great synergies and definitely won’t be enough to build a deck around.

Now let’s take a look at the strongest Warrior deck right now – Enrage Warrior. I’m frankly a bit worried about it. It’s losing cards like Rokara (+the Hero version), Warsong Envoy, and Whirling Combatant without getting much in return. While it wasn’t played in the latest version, the deck also loses the ability to run Armorsmith and generate tons of Armor. Again, it wasn’t a necessary strategy lately, but it might have been depending on the meta. Maybe it will survive the rotation, but it’s hard to say at this point.

And now probably the biggest hit of them all – the classic Control Warrior. Ever since the deck was nerfed back in Voyage to the Sunken City, it could never get back on its feet despite being a fan favorite (or, in case of certain people, the deck they hate the most). Some people had success with it from time to time, especially in the pocket, high-Legend meta, but it never reached mainstream popularity again. And I don’t think it will going into Festival of Legends. The deck loses Frozen Buckler + Shield Shatter combo, Rancor and Onyxian Drake in the board clear department, and then To the Front! and Captain Galvangar in the win condition department (+Kazakusan from Neutrals). Plus a bunch of “generic good cards” I’ll talk about later. Control Warrior is going to have a really rough time in the near future.

On top of those, the Warrior is losing two “generic good cards”. Those cards didn’t really support any specific archetype, but rather could be played across many of them. I know that only two cards sounds like it’s not a big deal, but both of them were so, so strong that they made their way into dozens of Warrior builds across their time in Standard. I’m talking about Rokara, the Valorous and Outrider's Axe. The former was a great late game burn tool – you could kill many opponents by either dealing 10 damage to face with the weapon + helping with the Hero Power (which was now offensive – a great change of pace), or by hitting big minions and making them go into the opponent’s face. That was a real Druid killer at the time, for example – they could eat your whole board and make a 30/30 Insatiable Devourer, and you could send that 30 damage straight into their face. Then, Outrider’s Axe has been one of the best weapons in Hearthstone’s history. 4 mana 3/3 weapon might not sound amazing, but the effect is what made it so strong. Drawing card for every minion you finish with it is just so strong. In the best-case scenario, you could draw 3 cards while also clearing your opponent’s board. It was so good that it often discouraged your opponent from even playing those small minions in the first place, giving you the necessary breathing room to gain more Armor.

Overall, we all know the current state of Warrior. Let’s hope that it will do better in Festival of Legends. From the theorycrafting stream, it looks like it might have some PLAYABLE options, but remember that the stream had some card requirements in place and the testing was limited in general. I hope that it’s true and the class is at least playable, but we’ll see.