In tales of old, the kraken was a monstrosity living in the deep seas. Any ship it came across was sunk with brute force, leaving only a couple of splinters as evidence of the massacre that occurred. In recent culture the kraken made its most notable appearance in some movie about pirates in which a random self-loathing tentacle-faced guy called his bigger brother (the kraken) whenever others were bullying him. Obviously of much larger cultural importance for the world was Hearthstone’s first zodiac year, the Year of the Kraken.

In part 1 of this two-part article series we took a look at the Year of the Kraken’s cards that we will miss when the next rotation occurs. But it’s not all roses when it comes to expansions. In this second part a more critical look is taken at the expansions and adventure that will leave Standard and their cards we won’t miss. The yins to the previous article’s yangs. Cards that have had a strong voice in the meta ever since they were introduced, whose Battlecries and sound effects has caused many a sleepless night. Cards of which the design was… debatable, and Team 5 could learn from (and in some cases already has). Without further ado, let’s take a look at them!

Whispers of the Old Gods

Fandral Staghelm

“Behold the rage of the Firelands!” Well, as it turns out, those Firelands had quite some rage in them. Fandral Staghelm’s obviously strong effect proved so powerful that it revived cards that had fallen out of grace, such as Nourish. The vengeful night elf cemented itself in any Druid deck that didn’t try to kill you on turn 5, and when dropped on board turned into a high-priority target to kill.

It’s Fandral Staghelm’s low mana cost and powerful effect combined that turned this card into a real menace. The effect itself, triggering both ‘Choose One’ options, is obviously powerful, but having the aura-effect active for merely 4 mana perhaps was tad too powerful. Imagine a turn-long effect spell, like Embrace the Shadow or Stampede, allowing both Choose One options to trigger for the duration of that turn. One powerful turn, no Firelands, no rage.

Thing from Below

One of the first questions asked when Thing from Below was revealed, was how many times you’d be pressing your Hero Power as Shaman. Aggro Shaman had been reigning for a while, using on-curve minions like Tunnel Trogg and Totem Golem to bash the opponent to pulp in little time as possible. Fortunately for the… Thing, totems played from hand also reduce its cost. And boy, did we learn that the hard way. For a full year aggressive Shaman lists reigned, peaking when in January 2017 the class made up over a third of the ladder.

After Aggro minions were first nerfed and the Year of the Mammoth subsequently rotated them to Wild, Shaman took it a bit easier. Its Evolve archetype emerged as a new threat, and Thing from Below took a front row seat in it. Turns out turning a 2 Mana 5/5 into even bulkier minions is pretty good. Cost-reduced 5/5’s haven’t disappeared, but they do come at a heftier price. Crystal Lion requires Silver Hand Recruits to be on board, and Kabal Crystal Runner (what is it with these crystals and cost-reduction?) needs Mage’s expensive Secrets to become cheaper.

Eater of Secrets

Secret Paladin. Those of you who experienced the meta in which the deck was prevalent know enough. Playing minions on curve and playing Mysterious Challenger on turn 6 – turn 5 if your opponent had some really bad karma – rose to popularity quickly after The Grant Tournament expansion came out. The only hard-counter in the game at the time, Flare, saw as little play as Hunter at the time.

Time to add an emergency brake, Team 5 thought. Enter Eater of Secrets, bane of any Secret Paladin player. Although it’s not by any means a dominant card in the meta (nor has it been at any given time), it’s not a particularly fun card. Much like Hungry Crab and Golakka Crawler it emphasizes draw-RNG that’s already inherent to card games. No, the developers can’t always know which cards will end up dominating the meta. But Eater of Secret is a no-brain answer rather than a well-crafted counter strategy, and can eliminate the opponent’s strategy in one simple turn.

One Night in Karazhan

Barnes

Of all the tales Barnes announces with its entrance, usually only two end up happening for your opponent: A tale of terrible tragedy or a tale of true terror. Granted, the card wasn’t too strong for a long time. As the game developed, however, Barnes and his compatriot Y’Shaarj received more support. Not necessarily directly, mind you. See, the whole deal with having a successful Barnes is having a couple of strong minions and around 24 spells. Thus, as more spells are released, the archetype gets stronger.

At first Big Druid (with some EZ’s in there) managed to use Druid’s ramp-cards in combination with Barnes to justify running many high-cost cards. Priest joined after receiving several reliable reviving mechanics, and after Spell Hunter was pushed by the developers players found out that sneaking in an extra Barnes and Y’Shaarj upped the win rate enough to make the deck viable. Although Barnes likely wasn’t intended as such, he has become an embodiment negative RNG.

Babbling Book

Why yes, you happy chap. I do want to cast a spell! But while Medivh’s book of spells has a happy grin and an energizing voice line, it has caused quite some frustration. Generating resources in card games is very powerful, even if it’s randomly generated. They provide more options, sometimes turning the opponent’s strength against them without anything they can do about it. The culmination of Babbling Book-frustration is still burned into everyone’s mind, when at the 2016 Hearthstone World Championships Pavel destroyed Amnesiac twice using the card.

Babbling Book is far from the only culprit, though. Swashburglar fits the cap just as well. And what about Jeweled Macaw? Crystalline Oracle generates a card through a Deathrattle, so it can be silenced. Team 5 hopefully will find a way of making cards such as these more skill-testing, if they want to keep printing them.

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan

The Jades

Oh Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. Two families fighting for a city (and the Grimy Goons brushing their shoes), each determined to prove to be the strongest. Almost a year and a half later it has become crystal clear that the Jade Lotus reign supreme over Gadgetzan, leaving the Kabal crushed beneath their larger and larger feet.

From Jade Idol to Jade Spirit and from Jade Chieftain to Aya Blackpaw, if it creates grunting green man that ever grow larger it has been viable. The only exception were Rogue’s two Jade cards, as they were outshined by Miracle Rogue. In the end it is undeniable that the Jades were a high skill floor, low skill ceiling mechanic that started as a fun experiment, but ended up causing more harm than good.

Drakonid Operative

Priest needed a helping hand when Mean Streets of Gadgetzan came around. The class had been on the lowest tiers forever, and neither Whispers of the Old Gods or One Night in Karazhan had helped. A new formula had to be brewed, and Drakonid Operative was the key to it all. A 5 Mana 5/6 body is very reasonable in and of itself, let alone with some positive effects attached to it. And boy, is the Battlecry a good one. Earlier on the importance of generating resources was already highlighted, and Drakonid Operative does so in one of the best ways possible. It provides information on the structure of your opponent’s deck while you get to choose which card you’d like to copy.

When Drakonid Operative was not in the most viable Priest list it was because another archetype, Razakus Priest, was dominating the ladder. However, as soon as Raza the Chained was nerfed, Drakonid Operative swiftly reclaimed the throne.

Dirty Rat

Blizzard has been very careful with a couple of mechanics in Hearthstone. Charge is the obvious one, as it has enabled a fair amount of extremely powerful combinations. Stealth is another one, with both Conceal and Master of Disguise being reeled in before they could do (further) harm. A third mechanic Team 5 has been careful with isn’t a keyword, however: toying with the opponent’s hand. The original Illidan Stormrage forced the opponent (and yourself) to discard three cards and draw three new ones. It was changed to do something completely different. Just a few weeks ago Coldlight Oracle was announced to rotate to the Hall of Fame, partially because it allowed for strategies that interfered with the opponent’s hand.

Of interfering with the opponent’s hand, Dirty Rat is guilty as charged too. Although there is definitely some skill-testing aspect to it – great players know when to time playing the unwashed rodent – it’s still a fairly unfun mechanic. Often the opponent can do little to prevent the outcome. Dirty Rat can be a highroll for either one of the players, and the player who didn’t get lucky will always leave the game feeling sad about that moment.

Oh and of course we can’t forget this one. And not much arguing is needed either.

Patches the Pirate

“But it no longer has Charge!”, a very small percentage of the player base might argue. True, but for such a long time it did. Patches the Pirate was perhaps one of the most underestimated legendaries when it came out, and rightfully so. How good can a Stonetusk Boar really be? Pretty dominating, apparently. The multi-eyed Pirate single-handedly carried his fellow freebooters into nearly every class. Pirate Warrior and Aggro Shaman were the first to profit from the free damage. With Journey to Un’Goro, Quest Rogue turned the 1/1 Charge into a 5/5 Charge.

“I’m in charge!” became the voice line of an era. It was heard everywhere. No, seriously. At the peak of its usage Patches was found consistently in eight of Hearthstone’s nine classes. Classes that didn’t even have any Pirate synergy snuck in one or two extra just to get the benefit of Patches, all before it finally was nerfed, mere months before its rotation.