Where Is the New Core Set Taking Us – What Archetypes Receive the Most Support?

Hearthstone’s 2021 Core set has been revealed in full, and there is a lot to take in with that one. The 235-card set that is about to replace Basic and Classic sets in the Standard format includes 29 brand new cards and 51 old cards that have been changed. Dozens of current staples have been cut, and the world of Hearthstone is about to change more than ever before.

Where is the new Core set taking us? The developers have been vocal about how the Core set can be changed every year more than the old sets were changed through Hall of Fame, and that enables them to better support specific types of decks that they want to see in the game each year. In this article, I take a look at what archetypes receive the most support in the 2021 Core set to try to come up with an idea of what we will be playing in Hearthstone in 2021.

Demon Hunter

Demon Hunter’s Outcast mechanic has been explored recently with Madness at the Darkmoon Faire bringing Redeemed Pariah and Line Hopper into the game. They will stay in Standard for another year, and Demon Hunter’s Core set delivers a good chunk of Outcast support in the form of Eye Beam, Crimson Sigil Runner, Spectral Sight, Kor'vas Bloodthorn, and Gan'arg Glaivesmith – all of them cheap cards that enable you to cycle through your deck quickly and generate tempo. While Demon Hunter has been happy to use powerful Outcast cards, a deck fully focused on the mechanic has failed to produce results. Given the cards that are staying in Standard for another year and the selection of Outcast cards used in the Core set, it looks like Blizzard will want this archetype to have another chance.

The most curious Demon Hunter cards rescued from rotation to the Core set have to be Feast of Souls and Coordinated Strike. They are among the worst Demon Hunter cards in the game right now and the Token Demon Hunter archetype has been a colossal failure. Historically, no token deck has succeeded without the ability to buff their tokens, and Demon Hunter has not had a single card to buff their board. Will Blizzard give Demon Hunter the means to buff their tokens? Will there be some other way for a token deck to succeed – remembering that Wrathscale Naga was not even close to being playable? Or will these cards attempt to support an archetype that is doomed to fail?

Another card saved from the rotation is Raging Felscreamer. Initially, it saw play as an enabler of Priestess of Fury, but later on it has been confined to the role of a combo-enabler with Mo'arg Artificer and Il'gynoth. The Big Demon Hunter archetype has not found any success, so why is Felscreamer still here? To enable new combo decks, or to try and push the Big Demon Hunter idea again? Maybe it will see play with Illidari Inquisitor in some midrange deck?

Battlefiend will also be part of the Core set, so Aggro Demon Hunter has something to play on turn one.

Overall, the Demon Hunter Core set provides support for multiple archetypes, but many of them have failed in the past, and it remains to be seen whether Blizzard tries to push them again this year.

Druid

The most notable feature of the Druid Core set is the complete absence of damage spells. We’re losing Moonfire, Wrath, Swipe, and Starfall all in one sweep. Druid will have to fight for the board with their Hero attacks and with minions. Expect Guardian Animals and Animated Broomstick to see a lot of play in Druid this year.

Druid’s ramp kit is intact with both Wild Growth and Nourish surviving the apocalypse, so Ramp Druid is not going anywhere.

Treant Druid is also receiving a lot of support with Landscaping, Force of Nature, Soul of the Forest, and Cenarius all providing Treant synergies. Druid can choose between ramping up for big minions or going wide with a token strategy, even without Savage Roar thanks to the multiple permanent buffs they have available.

Finally, there is an interesting nod to Beast Druid with Menagerie Warden that has been made cheaper at five mana. It was always a promising card, but the right mix of cards for it to shine just never happened: it was used in some Beast Druid lists, but it was never prominent. A midrange Beast Druid deck or some kind of combo Beast Druid deck are just waiting to happen with Menagerie Warden in the Core set. Perhaps Enchanted Raven will be the one-drop in one of those decks.

Hunter

There are two clear themes in the Hunter Core set: Beasts and spells.

Oh, Hunter has Beasts, what a huge surprise, I guess. That said, Beasts have not played a major role in many Hunter decks as of late. Sure, you’re tutoring your Phase Stalker with Scavenger's Ingenuity, but that’s a far cry from building a deck around Beasts. The new Core set provides support for midrange Beast decks with Webspinner, Headhunter's Hatchet, Bearshark, and Savannah Highmane while also supporting more playful approaches to the tribe with Selective Breeder and Dire Frenzy.

The spell support is also impressive. Lock and Load returns in a buffed form, costing only one mana, and there are lots of cheap spells in the Core set that can be used with it or in other spell-based decks: Arcane Shot, Tracking (without discard!), Quick Shot, and Deadly Shot. If the upcoming expansions provide some major build-around cards for Spell Hunter, this set of support cards could bring the archetype back to the Standard format. Or Perhaps Lock and Load is enough to build around? Historically, Lock and Load decks were mostly meme decks, although the best of them were just barely viable to play on the ladder.

The developers have talked about how you need at least three Secrets for any Secret class, and the Core set provides each Secret class with three options. For Hunter, they are Freezing Trap, Explosive Trap, and Snake Trap. Clearly, the developers have been choosing Secrets that you need to play around in different ways, and Hunter got a pretty good package. Whether Secrets will see mainstream play depends on the synergy cards, especially now that Phase Stalker is rotating out of the Standard format.

There is a notable absence of Deathrattle support for Hunter. The only Hunter Deathrattle cards are Savannah Highmane and Webspinner, neither of which is exactly the greatest for their Deathrattle effect alone. The neutral set includes Nerubian Egg and Baron Rivendare, so clearly there are some considerations for Deathrattle designs, but Hunter will need to rely mostly on expansion cards to support that archetype.

Mage

The Mage Core set is weird. Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by the quality of the Mage Basic and Classic sets, but the Core set seems to fall far short of what those sets provided.

Mage had a lot of reliable damage available in the form of Arcane Missiles, Frostbolt, Fireball, and Pyroblast, not to mention Ice Lance that was removed from Standard years ago. Now, only Fireball remains, so any Mage deck that wants to burn down their opponents will need a lot of support from the rotating expansions. Right now, we have only Apexis Blast and Mask of C'Thun. Maybe this will free up design space for Blizzard to make more Mage burn cards, but we will have to wait and see what Forged in the Barrens will bring to the table.

Freezes are also largely gone. No more Frostbolt, Frost Nova, or Blizzard. Only the worst freeze cards remain, and even though Snap Freeze and Cone of Cold were both made one mana cheaper, they are far worse than the freeze cards we are losing.

Mage gets some secret support with Arcanologist and the remaining secret package of Counterspell, Ice Barrier, and Mirror Entity is fine. We will also have Game Master, Apexis Smuggler, Rigged Faire Game, Netherwind Portal, and Occult Conjurer in Standard for another year, so there are some building blocks for Secret Mage.

There are also some Hero Power synergies in the Mage Core set with Fallen Hero and Coldarra Drake, but those would need a lot more support to build a deck around the Mage Hero Power.

The Mage Core set just seems thin.

Paladin

The most prevalent theme in the Paladin Core set is Silver Hand Recruits, commonly known as dudes. There’s even a new card just to make your dudes bigger, Pursuit of Justice. With Warhorse Trainer buffed by one attack and added to the Core set alongside Stand Against Darkness, Blizzard seems intent to make Silver Hand Recruits a thing again. Token Paladin has been a thing a couple of times, first with Justicar Trueheart and then with Baku the Mooneater. See a common theme here? The ability to summon a lot of Recruits. Stand Against Darkness and Day at the Faire could be enough to fill this role, so expect to see a lot of tokens when facing Paladins.

With the return of Righteous Protector and a 3/2 Argent Protector, Paladin also gets some nice tools for an aggressive opener, in a token deck or on its own. There is also some control support in the form of Equality.

Paladin is also a Secret class, and they are getting a brand new Secret Reckoning. It joins Noble Sacrifice and Avenge in the Paladin Secret pool. Avenge is widely considered the strongest Paladin Secret of all time, so it will be interesting to see if there is enough Secret Paladin support to bring the archetype back. It would probably take another minion or spell that pulls Secrets from your deck to make it happen.

However, Librams are not rotating yet, so if there is one Paladin mechanic that seems to be in a dominant position for next year, it’s Librams. Maybe they can go into a token deck, or maybe they just do their thing, but they look really hard to displace.

Priest

Priest has been a mess for many years. The class was just reworked last year, and now many of those ideas are being thrown aside. Hopefully, Blizzard will eventually find a satisfactory Priest design, but I’m not sold on this Core set either. As an upside, stealing is out. No more Thoughtsteal, Shadow Madness, or Cabal Shadow Priest, so you can actually play good cards against Priest now, although Cabal Acolyte will stay for another year.

Priest is getting some damage back, especially in the form of a sweet one-drop Crimson Clergy. There is also a nod to Silence Priest with Focused Will and a buff to Lightspawn, so maybe some tempo-based Priest decks can become a thing even though Inner Fire is leaving. To be fair, Silence Priest was more about multiple big minions hitting face than a single big minion buffed by Inner Fire. The inclusion of Humongous Razorleaf in the Core set seems to indicate support for Silence Priest, it is hard to see where else it would be used.

If Tempo Priest and Silence Priest fail to take off, Sethekk Veilweaver and Nazmani Bloodweaver are staying for another year, ready for some randomly-generated discount shenanigans.

Rogue

Rogue’s Core set is divided between a bunch of cards that will most likely see no play whatsoever, and a bunch of good old Rogue staples that will allow the class to keep rolling over people for the next year.

Cheap spells and recurring minions will remain a major part of Rogue’s toolkit thanks to Backstab, Preparation, Shadowstep, Deadly Poison, and Sinister Strike. The loss of Sap and Eviscerate may hurt, but with all of the broken Rogue card draw tools, Self-Sharpening Sword, and Prize Plunderer here to stay for another year, I doubt Rogue will miss them too much. Rogue gets card draw, Stealth minions, and weapons from the current Standard expansions, and Core set adds a chunk of cheap spells on top. That’s a pretty guaranteed recipe for success.

The Core set also provides some burgle support with Swashburglar and Vanessa VanCleef, but that archetype seems far too slow. Swashburglar could see play in a Pirate Rogue alongside Fogsail Freebooter, should Pirates become preferable to Stealth minions, but with the loss of Dread Corsair, that is unlikely.

Rogue is just so good at hitting face that considering other archetypes seems futile.

Shaman

There are no evolve cards in the Shaman core set! I repeat, there are no evolve cards in the Shaman Core set! Maybe the evolve mechanic will not see more support this year?

Instead, Shaman is going back to its roots: There’s support for Totems with Draenei Totemcarver and Mana Tide Totem, there’s the good old Doomhammer and Rockbiter Weapon combo, there are several Elementals from Menacing Nimbus to buffed Earth Elemental and Fire Elemental, and there is some spell damage with Novice Zapper and Lightning Bolt.

The Shaman Core set comes with multiple potential themes that I like a lot, but it will depend on the expansions to fill the gaps. As of right now, Totem Shaman and Burn Shaman have a fair bit of support from the expansions that will stay in the Standard format for the next year, whereas Elementals seem too slow for the current power level of the game.

Warlock

Warlock support continues to be divided between Control and Zoo with a splash of Discard thrown in for good measure.

Control Warlock gets the only Hero card in the Core set, the newly buffed Lord Jaraxxus that no longer sets your Health to 15, but instead gives you five Armor. With Siphon Soul getting its cost reduced to five mana and Drain Soul getting buffed to three damage, Warlock has some nice removal spells that also provide healing. Add in Hellfire and Twisting Nether for board clears, and Control Warlock has a solid toolkit in the Core set.

Zoo gets Possessed Villager back, gets to keep Flame Imp, and receives the brand new card Ritual of Doom, so things look good for the archetype. The discard variety sees two old favorites return: Tiny Knight of Evil is back and so is Lakkari Felhound, albeit in a slightly changed form as it now discards your two lowest-cost cards. This can be a buff, but it can also be a nerf that makes Hand of Gul'dan more difficult to discard. Either way, there is a good chunk of support for Zoo decks with or without discard mechanics in the Core set.

Warrior

Almost all of the Control Warrior staples are in the Core set, and they will now be available for all players for free. This makes me hopeful for budget control decks, something that has been almost unheard of in Hearthstone. Warrior loses Shield Block, but Brawl, Shield Slam, Armorsmith, and Execute remain and are bolstered by the return of Shieldmaiden.

Warrior also gets access to one of the few remaining Charge minions in Grommash Hellscream, and even though Inner Rage is gone, there are still Whirlwind and Cruel Taskmaster to potentially activate Grom. Enrage Warrior also gets Frothing Berserker, so there are some potential pieces available for this semi-aggressive Warrior archetype.

Pirate Warrior gets two brand new cards: Bloodsail Deckhand and Fogsail Freebooter. Pirates also don’t lose their buff minion unlike Murlocs (RIP Murloc Warleader), as Southsea Captain is here to stay.

And if that is not enough, there is also some Rush support in the Warrior Core set with the changed Warsong Commander and Warsong Outrider. I’d expect them to be too weak to see play though.

That still leaves Warrior with nice support for almost all major archetypes: aggro, midrange, and control. The life of a Warrior has never been bad in Hearthstone, and there is hope for a bright future for the class yet again.

Conclusions

Blizzard has provided all classes with some potential tools in the Core set. However, all is not equal: whereas there are plenty of tools to support archetypes like Control Warlock and Token Paladin in the set, some classes do not have enough pieces to put together anything coherent. Mage seems to have an exceptionally thin set of cards that requires a lot of support from expansions, and it is still unclear what exactly will Blizzard cook up for Priest. Overall, however, a lot of good cards are about to land in the hands of players for free when the Core set is released.