Which Core Set Buffs Are Going to Be the Most Impactful?

The introduction of the Core set will no doubt bring along seismic changes in Standard, and so many adjustments were made that it’s impossible to predict the overall landscape at the beginning of the Year of the Gryphon. However, having so much experience with the original versions of the buffed Classic cards, we can make some educated guesses about this specific subset and their competitive viability. Here’s a tentative top five.

(Not Really A Buff) – Stonetusk Boar

Sure, it’s pretty damn disingenuous of me to put this change in an article about buffs, but it’s such a big change I had to include it in this discussion. Simply put, oink oink no longer sounds like it used to. Though its direct gameplay impact is going to be limited, and indeed the card was rarely seen in the past few years beyond decks like Quest Rogue (The Caverns Below, not the Bazaar Burglary build), the fact that this cheapo Charge minion is gone opens up a ton of design space for Team 5.

Stonetusk Boar is regularly referenced as the biggest concept killer out there in the design stage, and it is easy to see how a one-mana minion with Charge can very easily become a source of degeneracy if the developers are not careful. Turning it into a quite frankly awful card may not have a big effect on the meta-breaking decklists out there, but it does significantly impact the sort of minions and spells we get to see in future expansions. Coupled with Bluegill Warrior’s similar demise, no Neutral cards will have Charge in the core set – only King Krush, Al'Akir the Windlord and Grommash Hellscream – notably expensive cards – wield the keyword alongside Kor'vas Bloodthorn.

5 – Lightspawn

If Tempo Priest is to become a reality, having instant access to a buffable 3 mana 4/4 is the way to start. The lack of strong non-situational curve cards was always the crippling issue of the nascent archetype, and with Inner Fire no longer available as a finisher for combo-oriented versions of the same strategy, anything that can pack a punch and make immediate use of health buffs as damage output can make a huge difference.

Cards like Power Word: Feast and Kul Tiran Chaplain become a whole lot more appealing all of a sudden, and with just one or two good relevant minions, it’s easy to see a buff-based archetype finally breaking through for Anduin with just a little bit of extra help, though it’s going to have quite the competition with the Silence archetype if Humongous Razorleaf becomes as relevant again as it once was in the metagame.

4 – Big Game Hunter

We may have the beast in our sights again. Originally an auto-include at three mana, BGH wasn’t good just because it offered neutral hard removal for the classes which struggled to find one in their portfolio: it was a very efficient package for the cost, with basically no tempo downside if you were to drop it as a 3 mana 4/2 on curve against aggressive opponents, meaning there was little to no downside in its inclusion. Though we haven’t exactly returned to those days, this is quite the step forward.

Indeed, four mana seems like the sweet spot for the card, and once you consider that cards like Polymorph and Hex have long been relevant in control decks at that cost, it’s easy to envision our bearded buddy making a resurgence even if it doesn’t come with a transformation effect. Even just having the option for further hard removal options can change how control decks play in the Year of the Gryphon, especially if the devs are true to their word and cut back on resource generation tools a bit going forward.

3 – Lightning Storm and Flamestrike

Is it cheating to lump these two together? Functionally, these adjustments will accomplish the same thing – providing more consistent board clears for their respective classes – by finally putting them in line with previously seen expansion cards. AoE effects that can’t reliably deal with the aggressor’s minions on curve might as well not exist, and seeing how the Core set has rejigged the defensive options of both Mage and Shaman, these seem like necessary changes, with great potential for slower archetypes.

2 – Deathwing the Destroyer

Speaking of impactful removals, Deathwing is no longer a desperate all-in play, which can make it an interesting curve-topper (and certainly a monstrous Arena card). This one is a bit weird – while those two are separate cards (so it’s technically not an old card getting buffed), Deathwing the Destroyer is a strictly better version of the original Deathwing, that’s why I think it belongs on this list. The nature of the buff is easy to understand (you will no longer discard your entire hand when you remove just a few minions), and it goes without saying that the card is now significantly better. Now, whether you can reliably get to ten mana and maybe even use the Discard effect to gain something (hi Warlock) is the big question here, which is close to impossible to answer at this stage.

1 – Lord Jaraxxus

No doubt this is the big one to look at. It’s an elegant and long overdue change to one of the most iconic cards in Hearthstone history, with massive gameplay implications to consider. Now that you turned THE EREDAR LORD OF THE BURNING LEGION into a Hero card, no longer is there a risk-reward aspect to playing out in most matchups. It is now a guaranteed increase in health (+5 Armor instead of a flat fifteen health), making in a monster to put out on curve in control mirrors. Gaining health and initiative at the same time also makes a much more tenable proposition against aggro decks, and it’s almost guaranteed that Lord Jaraxxus will be present in Control Warlock decks going forward should they end up viable in the upcoming metas.

Though this does technically come with a marginal loss of gameplay complexity (as you no longer have to run the risk-reward math on nuking your own health for the better hero power), this won’t make a major impact in practice as it was this very gameplay facet which relegated Lord J to the sidelines for so many years. I, for one, am very much looking forward to punching people in the face with Blood Fury again – though if we want to relive the Harrison Jones overdraw-dream-nightmare, we probably still have to head back to Classic Mode.