Which Hearthstone Cards Should Get An Alternative Version In The Future?

Whispers of the Old Gods was the first expansion in which alternative versions of already existing cards were introduced to Hearthstone. Since it was a sort of “what if” expansion (what would happen if Old Gods’ corruption spread across the Azeroth), it was only natural to feature new versions of already existing cards. Some were simple alternatives, while others were corrupted or twisted in some way. A few notable examples include: Hogger -> Hogger, Doom of Elwynn, Nat Pagle -> Nat, the Darkfisher, Deathwing -> Deathwing, Dragonlord and probably most unexpected of them all – Ragnaros the Firelord -> Ragnaros, Lightlord.

Even though alternative versions were less popular after Whispers of the Old Gods, it doesn’t mean that they were no longer present. Elise Starseeker turned into Elise the Trailblazer, while Hemet Nesingwary became Hemet, Jungle Hunter in Un’Goro. In Knights of the Frozen Throne, Icecrown Citadel version of Bolvar Fordragon was printed as Bolvar, Fireblood. Witchwood has given us a new Aviana (Duskfallen Aviana) and more recently Boomsday came with two new versions of already existing minions (C'Thun -> Mecha’thun and Dr. Boom -> Dr. Boom, Mad Genius). While not strictly a card reprint, Karazhan also featured Medivh, the Guardian, when we already had Medivh as an optional Hero for Mage class. Similarly, Hero cards from Knights of the Frozen Throne were the new versions of basic Heroes for each class. On the other hand, Lord Jaraxxus was turned into an alternative Hero for Warlock with the Boomsday pre-order rewards.

As you can see, despite Whispers of the Old Gods being the biggest source of alternative cards, the trend still continues, and we can expect to see more “new versions of the old cards” in the future. However, the question is, which cards should get an alternative version? In this article, I’ll explore some of the choices and discuss why they should eventually have a new version.

P.S. Hearthstone isn’t the first card game to introduce alternative versions of already existing characters. Most notable example is Magic the Gathering, where some of the planeswalkers (e.g. Jace or Chandra) have up to 9 different versions. Many other characters are also depicted on multiple cards.

Classic Warcraft Characters – Illidan Stormrage, Sylvanas Windrunner, Cairne Bloodhoof, Kel’Thuzad etc.

With Warcraft 3: Reforged coming next year, it might also be time to revisit some of the classic Warcraft characters. Most of them already have a card in Hearthstone (some of them, like Kael’Thas or Lady Vashj still don’t, but that’s another topic), but lots of those cards have rotated, or are underplayed because of their current power level. It would be really fitting to remaster some of them too, just like the Warcraft 3 itself is getting remastered.

I think that the card that deserves this kind of treatment most is Illidan Stormrage. While most of the other similar, important characters have been at least competitively viable at some point, the same can’t be said about Illidan. Well, unless you count his Alpha version, where he was (rightfully so) deemed to powerful and nerfed. He was previously a 7 mana 7/7 with “Battlecry: Each player discards 3 cards and draws 3 cards.” He was obviously a great way to disrupt your opponent’s game plan, as well as a nice refill in faster decks. Maybe they could release a new version with a more balanced twist on a previous effect (I really do think that we need some Neutral ways to disrupt the opponent’s combo), or maybe they could come up with something entirely new. Either way, I think that Illidan is such an iconic character that it would be a shame to leave him with only the current, weak card with a rather uninspiring effect.

When it comes to other classic characters, they have at least been viable at some point – some of them still are in the Wild. For example, Sylvanas Windrunner used to be one of the best Legendaries in the entire game, and now she still is a viable choice in some Wild decks after she has been sent off to the Hall of Fame. Given that her lore is far from over, she’s the current Warchief of the Horde and a lot of things are happening around her in WoW right now, not to mention that she’s one of the most popular Hearthstone Legendaries ever, she deserves a new version.

Similarly, I would love to see some twist on other iconic Warcraft characters – Cairne Bloodhoof, Grommash Hellscream or Kel'Thuzad are just some of the examples. I do understand that most likely the majority of Hearthstone’s playerbase aren’t very familiar with those, as they have never played Warcraft 3. The game is 16 years old after all – a big portion of the current players weren’t even born at the time. But Warcraft 3: Reforged is a great opportunity to introduce them to a new generation of gamers, and it would be amazing to see them again in Hearthstone.

Dragon Aspects

Dragon Aspects still form the base for many decks in Hearthstone. They’re the high cost, powerful Dragons from the Classic set. Each of them is a leader (or a former leader) of one of the Dragonflights:

• Black Dragonflight – Deathwing (he was known as Neltharion before, then he has gone crazy and destroyed half of the world)
• Blue Dragonflight – Malygos (former leader, funnily enough, his art actually depicts the next Blue Dragon Aspect – Kalecgos and not himself)
• Bronze Dragonflight – Nozdormu
• Green Dragonflight – Ysera
• Red Dragonflight – Alexstrasza

Out of five classic Dragon Aspects, only one has an alternative version – Deathwing, Dragonlord, despite the rest of them having a significant impact on the game itself too. Malygos is a part of multiple combo decks, similarly to Alexstrasza, who can also be used as a defensive play. Ysera was the first real “value” card, played in multiple Control decks in the past – right now she’s mostly a part of slower, Dragon-centered decks. And Nozdormu… he’s been one of the most broken cards in the game ever, and not in the terms of balance – multiple players have literally broken the game with him (e.g. forcing the opponent to completely skip their turns). His effect is still far from perfect and it was probably the most bugfixed card in the history. So that’s something.

Given that Dragon Aspects are some of the most powerful beings in Azeroth, I would expect the other four to eventually get new versions too. Each of the Dragonflights has their own quirks which could translate into cards really well.

P.S. Instead of adding a new version of Malygos, they might add Kalecgos instead. But then again, if I’m not mistakes, he’s also stepped down from the role of Dragon Aspect, although I would need a lore expert to say more about it. Plus, Kalecgos is not as recognizable among Hearthstone players as Malygos is.

The Lich King

It might seem weird to put The Lich King on this list, but bear with me. If I had to name the most iconic character from the Warcraft’s universe, the one that is known by most players, is a fan favorite and scores really, REALLY highly on coolness ranking, it would definitely be The Lich King.

Ever since he was printed in Hearthstone (Knights of the Frozen Throne), he has been the most staple Legendary and one of the most popular cards in general. Even right now, over a year since its release, it’s played in nearly 30% of the decks, which is a massive feat. The card is amazing.

But at the same time, I don’t like it that much. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the fact that it sees so much play, that it was a nice investment for new / F2P player and so. But I think that the current version of The Lich King just feels too… safe. It doesn’t have any crazy, outstanding effect – it’s just a big Taunt that gives you some extra value. While admittedly some of the Death Knight cards are cool (like Frostmourne), stuff like Death Coil or Death and Decay, despite being strong, are pretty boring. I get it why they did it this way – they didn’t want to restrict one of the most iconic characters to a specific archetype, or even a single deck. The current version makes sense, because you can basically put it in anything besides Aggro and it will work.

However, I would love to see a more exciting version of The Lich King in the future. The one when they take some design risks, something that might not necessarily fit into as many decks as possible, but has this “wow” factor when you make it work. I’m quite sure that they went through multiple ideas for the card before settling on the current one, and I bet that they could take one of the more interesting ones and make a new card out of it. Not now – The Lich King is still in Standard, and even after it rotates out, I think that adding a new one right away would be too much (the current one is so popular that it would get boring).

Leeroy Jenkins

The Man, the Legend, the Meme – Leeroy Jenkins is one of the strongest Hearthstone Legendaries, but also the one with a very interesting backstory. Because you see – Leeroy is not a Warcraft character. He’s a World of Warcraft player, which got famous for charging straight into the Rookery encounter, shouting one of the most memorable war cries in the history of gaming, while his teammates were trying to mastermind a plan. The original video was uploaded to YouTube 12 years ago, and it already has nearly 50 million views. The re-uploaded version from 2014 can also boast a pretty massive 12 millions views. If you haven’t seen it before, be sure to check it out. Notably, the last few seconds on the video have created another meme – “at least I have chicken”. He has quickly became one of the oldest WoW memes, and it was only a matter of time before he was actually added as an NPC in WoW and a card in Hearthstone.

If any card deserves a new version, it’s definitely Leeroy. I actually love his Hearthstone design – it makes so much sense. It’s a high attack, low health guy that charges right into the battle, and he summons whelps (which were part of the encounter he rushed into on the original video), plus his voice lines are done really well. The is played pretty much since the release, even though it has seen a nerf around the release of Naxxramas (it used to cost 4 mana, believe it or not).

What I would love is to get a Paladin Hero card based on Leeroy Jenkins (because yes, the original Leeroy character was a Paladin). It should be an aggressive card doing something crazy, unpredictable, risky, or all of those at the same time. Just go all-in on the meme, and something interesting will definitely come out of it. Even if not a minion or Hero card, I would love to see him at least as an alternative Hero skin for Paladin (in the future, because with young Arthas and the recent Sir Annoy-O, the class has enough skins for now).

Reno Jackson

And last, but not least, the only original Hearthstone character on the list – Reno Jackson. It was around League of Explorers when Team 5 started to really experiment with their own design, which later lead to creating multiple amazing characters and even races (funnily enough, some of which were introduced into World of Warcraft – talk about Hearthstone having an impact on the lore). Reno is still one of my favorite Hearthstone cards, both his effect and the rest of his design. His bear arms, goofy smile with a mustache, signature hat and “we’re gonna be rich!” line always make me smile. Even when I play Aggro in the Wild, I just can’t be mad about my opponent dropping him.

It was the first deck-matter card in the game – his effect only activated if you didn’t play any duplicates. Reno has proven that such cards can exist in Hearthstone, that they work quite well and promote some interesting deck building. Later we’ve got more support (Kazakus), as well as cards with a similar design, like the Prince trio from Knights of the Frozen Throne (Prince Keleseth etc.) or the the Baku the Mooneater & Genn Greymane duo from The Witchwood. His impact on the game was quite significant. Reno decks, especially Warlock and Mage, are still pretty popular choices in the Wild format – even if not the best, they’re pretty fun to play.

Given that Elise Starseeker, other main character from League of Explorers expansion, has already got a new version (Elise the Trailblazer), it might only be a matter of time before Reno gets his. However, the question is whether Blizzard will want to take it as an opportunity to reintroduce Highlander (no duplicates) decks into Standard by giving him another powerful effect with the same requirement, or maybe they will take a completely different approach. I was always a fan of Highlander builds, so I wouldn’t mind the first option at all.

And More!

That’s all folks, but those are only some of the characters I would love to see revisited in the future by adding an alternative version. If you liked the article, I can go ahead and create part two, where I list some other notable characters that should get a remaster in one of the upcoming expansions.

But before that, I would like to ask you about your opinions on this topic. Would you like to see more alternative versions of the cards? Did you like the alternative cards we’ve got so far (maybe even more than the original)? And what cards would you like to get a new version?

Good luck on the ladder and until next time!