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The exciting announcement of Classic Mode in Hearthstone should allow us veterans to revisit the golden oldies of the game. Though we still remember those times and some of those ludicrously chunky decks, approaching that version of the game can be quite tricky to those who entered the tavern at a later time. We’ve put together a list of some of the top Hearthstone decks in Classic Mode – some in terms of power level, some in terms of raw fun…
Welcome Back to the Classic(Al) Era!
So that’s what it felt like to World of Warcraft players when WoW Classic was announced, huh? Cast your mind back to the heady days of 2014 – we’re talking about times so far gone that we didn’t even have a Meta Snapshot at the time. Indeed, the first edition of Tempo/Storm’s signature analysis content came out in January 2015 title the “Post-GvG Ladder Tier List”, which should tell you everything you need to know about the timeframe.
Classic Mode will feature the June 2014 patch, which means the single post-launch balance change which made it in was Unleash the Hounds’ return to 3 mana from 2. That’s probably a good call!
No decktrackers or automated stat collectors were available back then either (and it goes without saying that the Vicious Syndicate collective wasn’t around either at the time), which means it took a lot longer to figure out the meta. Who knows, maybe there’s something lurking in the shadows we’ve all missed the first time around? We’ll know soon enough – but in the meantime, let’s take a look at the best and brightest of the Classic meta!
The Strongest Classic Decks (as They Were)
Miracle Rogue
Draw a gazillion cards with your Gadgetzan Auctioneer, then set up your finisher: it’s a strategy as old as the game itself, with many different nerfs aimed at it over the years. No deck did it better than the original Miracle Rogue.
- Format:
- Player:
6,800
- 0Backstab2
- 0Preparation2
- 0Shadowstep2
- 1Cold Blood1
- 1Conceal1
- 1Deadly Poison2
- 2Blade Flurry1
- 2Eviscerate2
- 2Fan of Knives1
- 2Sap2
- 2Shiv2
- 3Edwin VanCleef1
- 3SI:7 Agent2
- 4Assassin’s Blade1
Card changes:
Preparation reads: The next spell you cast this turn costs (3) less.
Cold Blood – costs 1 mana.
Blade Flurry – costs 2 mana and reads: Destroy your weapon and deal its damage to all enemies.
Edwin vanCleef – costs 3 mana.
Leeroy Jenkins – costs 4 mana.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer – costs 5 mana.
Midrange Hunter
Affectionately nicknamed “Sunshine Hunter” by Lifecoach after her daughter, the big innovation here was… River Crocolisk. Yes, that’s the kind of cutting-edge tech we’re looking at, a vanilla 2-drop with the Beast tag to set up Houndmasters! It’s the 2-mana Starving Buzzards that make the class shine.
Card changes:
Flare – costs 1 mana.
Hunter’s Mark – costs 0 mana.
Eaglehorn Bow reads: Whenever a Secret is revealed, gain +1 Durability.
Ironbeak Owl – costs 2 mana.
Starving Buzzard – costs 2 mana, has 2/1 stats.
Leeroy Jenkins – costs 4 mana.
Handlock
Draw a lot of cards, play big minions on the cheap, then hide behind Taunts and math it all out. Ancient Watchers serve as smaller defensive options, with free Molten Giants coming in clutch against aggro. For Control matchups, the infinite value of Lord Jaraxxus will almost always get you over the line. For everything else, there’s Leeroy Jenkins and Power Overwhelming.
- Format:
- Player:
- 8,320
- 1Mortal Coil2
- 1Power Overwhelming1
- 1Soulfire2
- 3Hellfire2
- 4Shadowflame2
- 4Siphon Soul2
- 8Lord Jaraxxus1
Card changes:
Soulfire – costs 0 mana.
Ironbeak Owl – costs 2 mana.
Big Game Hunter – costs 3 mana.
Leeroy Jenkins – costs 4 mana.
Control Warrior
Remove everything then remove some more, safe in the knowledge there’s no resource generation in the game yet. Still, your win condition isn’t Fatigue: you’re here for the Alexstrasza+enraged Grommash Hellscream double gut punch.
- Format:
- Player:
- 13,940
- 1Execute2
- 1Shield Slam2
- 1Slam1
- 1Whirlwind2
- 2Armorsmith2
- 2Cruel Taskmaster2
- 2Fiery War Axe2
- 2Shield Block2
- 4Kor’kron Elite2
- 5Brawl1
- 7Gorehowl1
- 8Grommash Hellscream1
Card changes:
Execute – costs 1 mana.
Fiery War Axe – costs 2 mana.
Face Hunter
SMOrc. Maybe draw some cards along the way? Of course it was Chakki who got it all started.
- Format:
- Player:
- 2,640
Card changes:
Abusive Sergeant – has 2 Attack.
Leper Gnome – has 2 Attack.
Flare – costs 1 mana.
Hunter’s Mark – costs 0 mana.
Eaglehorn Bow reads: Whenever a Secret is revealed, gain +1 Durability.
Leeroy Jenkins – costs 4 mana.
Starving Buzzard – costs 2 mana, has 2/1 stats.
Zoolock
The only cheating this Zoo deck’s got to work with is Life Tap, but it’s more than enough in the Classic meta. Grab yourself a consistent curve, take a board lead and then take advantage of being able to play two cards per turn in the late game. Serve with Soulfire and Doomguard – and voilà!
- Format:
- Player:
- 1,440
- 1Flame Imp2
- 1Soulfire2
- 1Voidwalker2
- 5Doomguard2
Card changes:
Soulfire – costs 0 mana.
Knife Juggler – has 3 Attack.
The Most Fun Archetypes You Never Got to Play
Healadin
The furthest end of the control spectrum, this deck defeats Warriors and Priests at ease at the cost of struggling against faster opposition. If Kolento could pilot it to Legend 1, surely we can too! The stars of the show are… the 1/1 Silver Hand Recruits, which really add up to a lot if your thirty cards evenly match your opponents’. For everyone else, there’s the one copy of Holy Light.
- Format:
- Posted By:
- 3,920
Card changes:
Knife Juggler – has 3 Attack.
Equality – costs 2 mana.
Freeze Mage
Who wants to play on the board in this game, really? As long as you can freeze and remove every threat until you cycle into enough damage to close out the game, you are on the way to victory. Just make sure you don’t queue into warriors.
- Format:
- Player:
- 7,960
- 1Ice Lance2
- 1Mirror Image2
- 2Frostbolt2
- 3Arcane Intellect2
- 3Frost Nova2
- 3Ice Barrier2
- 3Ice Block2
- 4Fireball2
- 6Blizzard2
- 7Archmage Antonidas1
- 7Flamestrike1
- 10Pyroblast1
Card changes: shockingly enough, none (because the key pieces were moved to Wild)!
Midrange Druid
Force of Nature + Savage Roar = 14 damage. It was the magic number for a very long time when it comes to dealing damage from hand, and it single-handedly kept Druids competitive until its eventual nerf many years later. Back then, it wasn’t clear whether running the double combo is worth it or not, and it will be interesting to figure it out all over again this time around.
- Format:
- Posted By:
- 7,640
- 0Innervate2
- 2Wild Growth2
- 2Wrath2
- 3Savage Roar2
- 3Swipe2
- 4Keeper of the Grove2
- 5Force of Nature2
- 6Druid of the Claw2
- 7Ancient of Lore2
- 8Cenarius1
Card changes:
Innervate reads: Gain 2 Mana Crystals this turn only.
Wild Growth – costs 2 Mana.
Keeper of the Grove – has 4 Health.
Big Game Hunter – costs 3 mana.
Force of Nature reads: Summon three 2/2 Treants with Charge that die at the end of the turn.” and costs 6 mana.
Ancient of Lore reads: Choose One – Draw 2 cards; or Restore 5 Health.
Yellorambo
Luci Kelemen is an avid strategy gamer and writer who has been following Hearthstone ever since its inception. His content has previously appeared on HearthstonePlayers and Tempo/Storm's site.
Check out Yellorambo on Twitter!
I see most interesting possibility in Classic the fact that now I have most of the cards that I just did not had in 2014. I’m missing only 4 legendaries and 1 epic from all those decks above. So it’s not question if I can compete with budget decks or not but more like if I can compete or not. Sure meta will be stale, but it still gives most players same changes to play with good decks that does not get old in 4 months.
When Tempostorm had their History of Hearthstone tournament, I found myself getting nostalgic for a period I didn’t even play in. For a while I even watched old Trolden videos and tournaments from around launch (and Hearthpwn has decks from 2014 too), so I’m very excited to play this.
Now, will the meta get figured out extremely quickly? Yes. Will “optimal” deck lists be discovered within a month or so? Probably. Will there be any meta fluidity? Probably not. But still, I think it will be a fun enough diversion. I can honestly see myself maiming the format (though I’m probably a minority) since I’ll be able to play miracle rogue endlessly.
Don’t forget that pre-errata Force of Nature was 6 mana.
In healadin Equality is second card that was changed. It used to cost 2 mana
Thanks, fixed!
Was hoping to see some mill rogue or shockadin hahaha. Especially shockadin cus that’s the deck I first hit legend with. I gotta admit though I’m not sure if that was pre naxxramas
Shockadin was Aggro Pally with Avenging Wrath right? I think it will be playable in Classic, actually.
Mill Rogue was first played in Naxx I think, but really became more popular in GvG thanks to Healbot giving a defensive option. Some form of Mill Rogue might be playable in Classic, though.
The first deck I hit Legend with was Tempo Rogue. Then I took it all the way to around Top 50 Legend finisher around the time we’ll land in Classic (it was either May or June 2014). But hitting high Legend was way, way easier back then.
Nah holy shock a mountain giant. It could somehow be guaranteed to be the last card I think. Even if not back then that idea was still decent.
I meant molten giant.
Yea played avenging wrath and was my favourite of all pala decks. And i was never able to get into high legend. Mostly lost one and won one back then. And now I only barely get into legend. Well none the less I’m excited about classic… Well not about about hunter. Buzzard dogs was hell of annoying.
It would be crazy if there was an undiscovered top tier shaman deck.
I’m nearly sure that we had some undiscovered, strong decks. Deck building skills were much worse back then, and we didn’t have stat-tracking tools like HSReplay etc. People will probably find something new to play that we didn’t discover back then. That’s actually the thing I’m waiting for most.
I hope that some of the good old streamers will get back, the streaming scene today is mostly around Battlegrounds. i don’t know why this happened, i guess HS constructed lost its popularity an streamers need the audience maybe the main reason is that HS is too expensive and BG is free?
Me too! I just hope I can get some friends to play.
What about patron warrior?
Grim patron was not part of the classic set.
Classic Hearthstone will be played on June 2014 patch, Patron Warrior became a thing a ~year later 🙂 Maybe they will introduce some expansions to Classic at one point, but it won’t be playable when the format releases.
I’m still confused as to why they gone so far to create classic mode.
Yes, people could test original cards from old times.
But after a few run with the most broken deck, then what? No new strategy will surface, and it will be the fastest boring mode ever made.
#facepalm
Yeah, it Will be fun for 2 days, and then nobody Will ever touch it again…
But… Maybe it’s part of a bigger plan? Maybe an all in/ no restrictions/ pre-nerf wild?
Some people don’t mind playing the same thing over and over again. I mean, Chess didn’t have any major rule changes in hundreds of years and people still enjoy it 😀
And to be honest, they never said that they won’t balance Classic format. If it turns out that X deck is overpowered, it might get nerfed in Classic only (Classic will have its own versions of cards anyway). If they land at a balanced meta, it might be pretty fun to play a few old decks every now and then. It definitely won’t be my main format, but I’m looking forward to it.
I also think that it will get stale quickly, but we’ll see. In the worst case scenario I’ll have fun for a week and then forget about it, haha.
It’s actually completely obvious, because people are understandably upset that they invested so much in classic packs just to have them be worthless outside of wild, which also gets to use the core set so redundancy there too with classic packs. This way if someone had a bunch of classic packs for some reason they can just say “well the classic packs can still be used/are needed for classic MODE”. Sneaky way to retire classic and basic cards without compensating people who grinded to get all the classic cards.
Well, you will be compensated alright, all those classic cards you hold all these years, Hearthstone will pay you a 1/4 of their dust value if you don’t play Wild.
Sounds great. Am I right? Wonderful. Truly wonderful.
Doesn’t really pertain to my points which actually had information within.
My point was they made classic mode as a band-aid for removing classic & basic and hand-selecting which cards will still be core.
Furthermore a fraction of dust could never be worth the value of a full set of evergreen cards that now everyone gets. Not even complaining, just pointing out obvious facts.
To this point, I really don’t know what they gonna do anymore. Too much changing to Hearthstone, losing evergreen, Wild goes back to Standard as in full expansion set (or at least similar), it may become Hearthstone 2.0 already for all I care.
We’ll see more in 2 weeks I guess
You yourself JUST said you were baffled at the purpose of classic mode. I gave you the insightful answer you were looking for and then you pivot to defensive babble.
I was in sarcasm mode. C’mon. LOL
Wow, this really is a throwback. Finally a use for Cenarius and Cairne
Good write up of the “good” old days.
Just on the handlock bit you’ve put the change for ironbeak owl wrong should be a cost of 2 instead of 0.
Sorry, fixed!
In the sunshine hunter, there is no eaglehorn bow though it is in the card changes section.
And in Handlock, no Lord Jaraxxus. 😉