Which Cards Will Change in Hearthstone Classic Format? List of Original, Unnerfed Cards And Their History

Blizzard has recently announced that Hearthstone will get a new format called “Classic”. It will bring the game back to its original, post-release state from June 2014, before any expansion has been released. Players will only have access to Basic & Classic cards from that era.

However, a lot has changed since 2014. Many cards got nerfed, buffed, remade or even Hall of Famed, with new ones being introduced in their place. In Classic, all of those will get reverted. But many of you either haven’t played the game back in the day or might not remember how original cards looked like. So in this post, I will compare the current age Basic & Classic to their versions from 6.5 years ago and showcase all of the card differences. I hope that this visual representation and some extra context will come in handy.

Demon Hunter

Demon Hunter class didn’t exist back in 2014, so it will be gone completely! The only reminder of the class will be the original version of Xavius – Illidan Stormrage.

Druid

When it comes to Druid, we have some substantial changes. The biggest nerf across the years targeted ramp cards – Innervate, Wild Growth and Nourish are all cards that still see play in their weaker form, so you can imagine how strong they used to be back in the day. Notably, Nourish is also a more efficient card draw now, being a regular 3 cards for 5 mana.

Second most important change is the remake of Force of Nature. In the current form, card summons 3x 2/2 Treant and that’s it. Previously, it gave those Treants Charge and they died at the end of the turn. It could be easily combined with Savage Roar for 14 burst damage from hand, and even more with any extra minions on the board (or e.g. Innervate into second Savage Roar). Right now 14 burst damage might not seem that big, but back then classes generally didn’t have access to high damage combos.

The class also lost Naturalize, which was funnily enough considered to be one of the worst cards back in Classic, but then gained a lot of popularity in Druid decks that didn’t care about opponent drawing cards, because all they wanted to do is to get to their own combos – and 1 mana to remove a minion was very efficient, letting Druid draw more cards or play some minions on the same turn. Then, both Keeper of the Grove and Ancient of Lore were nerfed, because they were auto-include in multiple Druid builds at the time. I expect them to see a lot of play in Classic.

Hunter

While Hunter didn’t get many changes, the ones it did were really crucial. By far the biggest one is Starving Buzzard, which now costs… 5 mana. Yes, it was one of the harshest nerfs in the history, and for a good reason. Starving Buzzard + Unleash the Hounds combo should be pretty popular in Classic – for 5 mana you can summon a bunch of minions with Charge AND draw tons of cards. With 4 minions on the opposing side, that’s 2/1 + 4x 1/1 with Charge + 4x card draw. Neat, right? Especially in a class that didn’t have access to any premium card draw back then (and still doesn’t for the most part).

Other than that, two cards got their mana cost increased. Flare will cost 1 instead of 2 and Hunter's Mark will cost 0 instead of 2. Flare was nerfed, because at one point it was played in nearly every Hunter build as a simple cycle that sometimes has an upside, while Hunter’s Mark was an incredibly powerful tempo tool, first nerfed to 1 mana and then to 2 – combine it with Buzzard + Unleash combo for some dramatic board swings.

And last, but not least, Eaglehorn Bow. If you don’t notice any difference – look closer at the card text. Back then, its effect used to trigger whenever ANY Secret was revealed, not just friendly Secrets. It didn’t make any difference in most of the matchups, but if you faced another deck using Secrets, the card was way stronger.

Mage

While Mage class didn’t lose much, some of its most iconic cards have rotated out to Hall of Fame over the years. I’m talking about Ice Block and Ice Lance. The former is one of the strongest Secrets in the entire game, basically preventing death and buying Mage an extra turn to do whatever they want. The latter is a strong burst tool – while it doesn’t look like much by itself, if you combine it with Frostbolt, you can have some really powerful burst turns (e.g. Frostbolt + 2x Ice Lance is 11 damage for just 4 mana). Those two cards should bring an old-school Freeze Mage back to the game.

And then we’ve got Mana Wyrm, which was one of the best 1-drops in Hearthstone’s history before it finally got nerfed to 2 mana and became unplayable (I still think that nerfing it to 1/2 and leaving at 1 would be a better idea, but I digress). We’re back to the 1 mana version, and while we should probably see it in some variation of Tempo/Secret Mage, the card’s glory days were quite a bit later than Classic, so I don’t think that it will be very problematic.

Paladin

As you can see, Paladin didn’t really change that much compared to 2014. One card rotated out to Hall of Fame and second one got nerfed. Divine Favor is a card that activates more aggressive Paladin decks, letting them refill their hand in slower matchups. In the more extreme scenarios, it could draw 5+ cards for just 3 mana, and it was a perfect Handlock counter even back then.

2 mana Equality might not seem that crazy powerful now that we have cards like Libram of Justice or Lord Barov, but it was crazy good back then. Paying 6 mana to clear the opponent’s board with Consecration or as little as 4 mana to do a full board wipe with Wild Pyromancer was really good even in the early Hearthstone days.

Priest

Priest is the class that experienced BY FAR most changes to their Basic/Classic set, mainly because of last year’s “rework”. But in this case, not every change when we go back to Classic is positive. In fact, multiple cards will be WORSE than they are right now – Shadow Madness (now 3 mana), Temple Enforcer (now 5 mana with just 1 Attack less), Thoughtsteal (now 2 mana) and Shadow Word: Death (now 2 mana) are straight up better today. The new Holy Nova, while not better in every situation, is also a better card overall. The only arguable change would be Holy Smite, which better and worse at the same time, depending on what you want to use it for. The last change is Power Word: Shield, which was a way better card in Classic and a Priest auto-include – I expect every Priest build to run it in Classic.

The rest of cards didn’t get nerfed/buffed, but rather straight up rotated out to Hall of Fame. Prophet Velen was pretty bad back in Classic, before players got some ways to reduce its mana cost and combo it with Mind Blast / Holy Smite for big burst finisher. Technically you can do 14 damage with it now, but that’s probably not enough in a Class that mostly relies on Control playstyle. Shadowform was never really good, some people attempted to play Shadowform builds back in the day, but mostly for memes. Auchenai Soulpriest, on the other hand, is an interesting card that has seen a lot of play in the game’s early days when combined with Circle of Healing – it was a cheap and efficient board clear combo.

Holy Fire and Mind Blast add some burst potential to the class, but interestingly enough Holy Fire was way more common out of those two back in the day. That’s because unlike Mind Blast, it could also be used to control the board and heal up when necessary. Unless people come up with some new ways to utilize Mind Blast and do some cool combos (which I doubt), it shouldn’t see much play.

But probably most importantly – Northshire Cleric will be back in the game. Between having good 1-drop stats and a huge potential throughout the entire game (you could drop it at any point and draw a bunch of cards), it was one of the best Priest cards ever and will definitely be played in Classic. So overall, Priest is a very mixed bag – many cards will get worse, a bunch of which would absolutely see play in Classic, but then again Anduin will get back some powerful Hall of Fame options.

Rogue

Back in Classic, Miracle Rogue was considered to be one of the strongest if not THE strongest decks, and some of the cards displayed above are the reason why. Well, maybe let’s start with the ones that rotated out to Hall of Fame.

Conceal was a pretty staple Miracle Rogue card for two reasons. First – you could drop it after playing Gadgetzan Auctioneer to possibly give yourself another turn of drawing, or play it after dropping Questing Adventurer / big Edwin to have a huge threat that can’t be targeted by spells. Fun, fun, fun! The other Hall of Famed card is Vanish, but it actually didn’t see much play back in Classic. It was later when decks like Mill Rogue became popular that Vanish became a more common Rogue card. Still, maybe players will find some way to incorporate it into Classic builds.

Then we’ve got Blade Flurry, which was one of the biggest Rogue nerfs in the history. The card not only got its cost increased by 2, but also face damage removed. It was a massive hit to what was a really powerful card back in the day, and I fully expect it to be played in Classic, as it’s one of the only Rogue AoE removals. It will most likely be combo’d with Deadly Poison and possibly Assassin's Blade – although I’m not sure if the latter will stand the test of time. That said, back in Classic the card wasn’t nearly as “problematic” as it became later down the road, when Oil Rogue took over.

Preparation discounting cards by 3 instead of 2 is also a pretty big deal. Well, maybe not so much back in Classic, because most of the spells played in Rogue costed 0-2 mana anyway, with Fan of Knives being the only exception. Which will actually be a quite common combo, very often combined with a source of Spell Damage like Bloodmage Thalnos or Azure Drake to deal 2 AoE damage for 0 mana.

Both Cold Blood and Edwin VanCleef got their cost increased by 1 (Edwin is the most recent nerf), and as it is with any combo card, the more it costs, the harder it is to get the Combo effect off. Cold Blood used to be incredibly strong and very easy to use at 1 mana – at 2 it has dropped out of most builds. It will definitely be played in all kinds of Rogue in Classic. And Edwin… well, Edwin has always been a Rogue staple at 3 mana, including Classic, where 10/10+ Edwins were quite common in Miracle build.

And finally, Master of Disguise was a non-nerf – the card used to give a friendly minion Stealth permanently, now it only gives it for one turn. Seems like a massive difference, but it has seen virtually zero play even before the nerf, which was meant to “open design space”. I honestly can’t tell if it opened anything, but I don’t expect it to be commonly seen in Classic.

Shaman

Shaman didn’t have many cards that got changed over the course of years, and while the original versions of those cards were clearly better, none of those is a game-changer.

Let’s start with probably the most impactful change – Flametongue Totem. At 2 mana, it was really common in multiple Aggro and Midrange builds of Shaman. At 3 – not so much. Only full-fledged Totem builds played it, and even them didn’t always want to include it at 3 mana. With it being back at 2, I expect more aggressive Shamans to play it in Classic.

Same thing with Rockbiter Weapon – the card was quite useful at 1 mana, either as a small minion removal or extra burst damage. The latter was especially powerful when combined with Doomhammer‘s Windfury – a single Rockbiter Weapon could add +6 damage for just 1 mana. Well, that use is still present at 2 mana, but it was simply easier to squeeze in a 1 mana version.

And finally – Hex, which was honestly nerfed out of nowhere. At the time it was changed from 3 to 4 mana, Control Shaman wasn’t even played. I have to admit that Hex WAS undercosted at 3 mana and I don’t know why it didn’t launch at 4 in the first place – that’s probably why they wanted to “fix” their mistake. It’s a good card at 4, and it was even better at 3.

But all in all, Shaman wasn’t really… great back in the Classic days. Maybe people will come up with some better builds when the format comes out, though.

Warlock

While Warlock also didn’t have many card changes, those were way more impactful than Shaman’s, for example. Let’s start with two cards that have rotated out to Hall of Fame – Power Overwhelming and Doomguard.

Both of those were Zoo Warlock’s staples at the time the class was played. Power Overwhelming was put into nearly every single build because of how efficient it was. Yes, it killed the minion in the process, but trading the minion up would usually kill it anyway, so it was a big deal. And 4 damage for 1 mana came in handy with burst finishers. Talking about burst – Doomguard was another Zoo staple that worked incredibly well against most of the decks. 5/7 with Charge for just 5 mana was insane back then – it could either go straight for the face or get some efficient trades because of its superior stats. Discarding 2 cards was indeed a problem, but Zoo Warlocks had such a low curve that you could usually get down to no other cards in hand (or maybe 1 other) before dropping it.

And talking about burst finishers again, Soulfire… Yes, the card did cost 0 mana back in the day. While the discard part was still there, it was immensely better at 0. Not only you could make much bigger early game tempo swings (e.g. playing a 2-drop and Soulfiring your opponent’s 2-drop on the same turn), but it was easier to play other cards before using Soulfire, and 0 mana gave it higher burst potential.

Interestingly enough, Power Overwhelming also activated a Handlock finisher combo that was played in nearly every build back then. You could drop Leeroy Jenkins (which costed 4) + Power Overwhelming + Faceless Manipulator for 10 mana, 20 damage burst. Even by today’s standard, the combo is very strong – it required no set-up, no mana discounts or anything like that, and it was only 3 cards in a deck that cycled a lot thanks to its Hero Power. In fact, you could also run a Soulfire to add 4 (or 8 with two) extra damage to the combo, and Power Overwhelming had some other uses (e.g. playing it on Sylvanas Windrunner) to force it to die and steal your opponent’s minion – might not seem very efficient, but stealing a minion like Tirion Fordring was often an instant victory!

Warlock was one of the strongest classes back in Classic and I expect things to stay that way, unless something unexpected happens.

Warrior

Let’s start with Warsong Commander – one of the harshest nerfs in the history, completely killing the card. Right now it gives your minions with Charge +1 Attack… which is completely useless. Back then, it used to give Charge to minions with 3 or less attack. The version of Warsong Commander you see above didn’t really see much play in Classic. It first became playable in Naxxramas in so-called Math Warrior, a deck that played it alongside Frothing Berserker and multiple Whirlwind effects to buff its attack and OTK the opponent. But it really became popular after Blackrock Mountain launched and Grim Patron was released. Maybe players will come up with some interesting combos for it even back in Classic, because the card definitely has some potential.

Then, we’ve got Fiery War Axe and Execute, which both got their mana cost upped by 1. And those are the two nerfs that will be most impactful on Warrior’s Classic performance. Both of them have seen common play across different Warrior builds – Fiery War Axe was staple in every single build (board control for Control Warrior, 6 damage for 2 mana for Aggro), while Execute has mostly seen play in Control version.

Finally, Charge… it honestly hasn’t seen play back in Classic in its original form at all, so I don’t expect this nerf reverse to matter at all.

Warrior’s card changes across the years honestly won’t make a massive impact on its performance in Classic, but it was a decent class overall back then.

Neutral

Oh well, where should we start… Maybe let’s begin with the Legendary package. Two Neutral Legendaries have rotated out to Hall of Fame, while one of them was nerfed. Sylvanas Windrunner and Ragnaros the Firelord were present in nearly every slower deck simply because how powerful they were. Interestingly enough, Sylvanas used to cost 5, but that was even earlier than June 2014, so luckily she will already be at her regular 6 mana cost in Classic. Leeroy Jenkins at 4 mana used to be auto-include in all Aggro decks, being a very efficient finisher for its cost. All three of those should see a lot of play in Wild.

Now, the Giants – Molten Giant and Mountain Giant are both in Hall of Fame now, but they used to be staples in certain decks. Looking at Classic format, the deck they will activate is Handlock. Both of them were staple – Mountain because you drew a lot of cards and Molten because, well, you took a lot of damage. I vaguely remember Mountain Giant seeing some play in other decks like Control Paladin, but Handlock is clearly their destination.

Gadgetzan Auctioneer got nerfed from 5 to 6 mana mostly because of its performance in Rogue class in general and Miracle Rogue in particular. It was one of the best decks in Classic days, and 5 mana Auctioneer did help tremendously. It being cheaper not only meant that you could either start drawing cards earlier or you had more mana to work with – both of which are very helpful with a card like that. It being back at 5 will make Miracle Rogue great again.

Another cost change was made to Big Game Hunter. It was a pretty substantial nerf, the card went all the way from 3 to 5 mana. The nerf happened some time after Classic, but even back in Classic it has seen SOME play, especially in Control decks that needed more removal or decks that simply didn’t have access to good, big minion removal (e.g. Midrange Druid). It should see some play at 3 mana.

Arcane Golem got remade into, well, a useless card. Back then it was a 4/2 Charge for 3 mana – while it seems OP, it also gave a Mana Crystal to the opponent, speeding up their progress and letting them drop bigger minions. However, some Aggro decks were so fast that they didn’t care and preferred it for +1/+1 stats over Wolfrider (or they have played both for maximum Charge goodness). Maybe players will be better at taking advantage of the extra Mana Crystal now, but I’m not sure – it will probably still be played in Face decks (or, alternatively, instead of Leeroy in Handlock – you can add some extra burst by playing Arcane Golem with 2x PO instead of Leeroy with a single one).

Azure Drake, Mind Control Tech, Coldlight Oracle and Acolyte of Pain have all seen a lot of play back in the day, but they all rotated out to Hall of Fame. Azure Drake and Acoltye were simply too efficient Neutral sources of card draw (and they will absolutely be played in Classic), while MCT was… it was annoying. Probably some builds will run it too in Classic, and they will surely snatch your 8/8 surrounded by three small minions. What about Coldlight Oracle? It was a bit of both. The card has seen SOME play in Aggro as a source of card draw, but giving your opponents cards wasn’t exactly the best way to approach things. So in the end, it has mostly seen in Mill combos – something that wasn’t particularly a problem back in Classic, those only came into action a bit later when a couple of expansions launched. But maybe some resourceful players will make them work.

Thanks to the 2 mana Ironbeak Owl and Spellbreaker being available, Silence was much more common back then. In fact, 2 mana Owl meant that Spellbreaker didn’t even see much play – Owl was common across all decks, from Aggro (to get through Taunts) to Control (to get rid of powerful Deathrattles).

Then we’ve got a few “smaller” Attack nerfs – Knife Juggler, Abusive Sergeant and Leper Gnome have all seen -1 Attack nerf, which interestingly enough basically killed all three. They were very popular in their original forms, mostly in Aggro/Tempo decks for obvious reasons.

And finally, the Murloc package of Murloc Warleader, Coldlight Seer, Murloc Tidecaller and Grimscale Oracle is here because back then those cards used to affect ALL Murlocs, not only friendly ones. Murloc mirrors rarely happen right now (unless you count the recent Alura + Tip the Scales combos), but back then they were more common, so something like Coldlight Seer buffing opponent’s Murlocs too was a big deal. On top of that, Murloc Warleader used to give +2/+1 instead of the +2 Attack it gives right now. Health buff was quite potent, making your Murlocs survive AoE and trade better.

Other Changes

Twe minion types – Mechs and Elementals – were introduced in expansions, which means that they weren’t present back in Classic. It means that, for example, Ragnaros the Firelord won’t be an Elemental (we’ve used image with Elemental tag above because we don’t have HQ version of non-Elemental one) and Harvest Golem won’t be a Mech. However, technically it makes no difference, because no cards interacted with those tribes back in Classic.

At the same time, visual-only changes won’t be reverted. It means that Felstalker won’t turn back into Succubus, and altered card artworks (e.g. Deadly Shot) won’t be back to their original form. The only exception is Xavius, which we’ve already mentioned earlier.

And that’s… about it. As you can see, Classic will feature quite a lot of changes – some of them completely pointless, others incredibly impactful. Let me know if I missed anything so I can add it to the list.