This month is seeing a couple new additions to the Hall of Fame in Hearthstone. As the removal of cards from the Evergreen set pile up, the Hearthstone team have decided to add a handful of new cards to keep the set at a standard number. The Hall of Fame and new Classic cards see the replacement of a Rogue and Priest card in an effort to “aid their class identities”, according to Blizzard.
Blizzard intends for board clear to be one of the struggles of Rogue. Vanish effectively clears the entire board and that isn’t what the Hearthstone team wants. The card sees little play in the current standard meta, but the history of the card shows it as quite a powerful threat. When Quest Rogue was king, Vanish was an integral tool for the mid to late game phases for the deck.
Being slotted into its place is Plaguebringer, a four mana 3/3 that gives a friendly minion poisonous. It’s more in line with Rogue’s single target removal game plan with cards like Sap, Vendetta, and Walk the Plank. Plaguebringer can be seen as a better alternative to Walk the Plank in certain instances since it gets a minion body on board. Rogue’s like to spread the board currently so finding a target for it shouldn’t be too difficult.
As for Priest, Mind Blast is the card moving on to the Hall of Fame. Mind Blast is currently not a problem card since Resurrection tools have rotated to Wild, but Mind Blast always has the potential to create problems with Prophet Velen. It’s in line with the Shadow Priest fantasy, but Blizzard wants the class to focus on healing rather than damage it seems.
Priests will be receiving Radiance in replacement. A one mana spell that restores five health to your hero. This is effectively a worse Flash Heal. Flash Heal as is was a poor card and failed to see play, this card is even worse. Plaguebringer was a good card but Radiance was definitely not what Priest players wanted to see.
Warlocks will be receiving Siegebreaker as a new Classic card. It is a seven mana 5/8 taunt that gives other demons plus one attack. The card is simply too expensive to justify itself seeing play right now. Maybe if Warlocks are ever able to cheat out Demons like in the past with Cubelock should this card maybe see play.
Druids will receive the spell, Gift of the Wild. For eight mana, this card gives all minions +2/+2 and taunt. This is very reminiscent of the recently rotated Level Up! Either way, the effect that this card has is extremely powerful and great in the late turns for Token Druids.
The last new class card is Righteousness for Paladin. It is a five mana spell that gives all of your minions Divine Shield. This is a spell that costs too much to justify play, as giving all minions Divine Shield isn’t a powerful enough effect.
Brightwing and High Inquisitor Whitemane are getting added to the Classic set as Legendary minions. The two fill the holes left by Ragnaros and Sylvanas Windrunner, at a much lower power level. However, these two cards are still decently strong in their own right.
Brightwing is a three mana 3/2 with the Dragon tag. Brightwing adds a random Legendary minion to your hand as its Battlecry. The tempo loss is kind of bad on turn three, high rolling with particular Legendaries adds a degree of fun and minor potential in a Dragon synergy deck.
High Inquisitor Whitemane looks very good at first glance. She could be used in decks that like to swarm the board to provide another strong board. If you have to sacrifice a board into a large taunt, this seven mana 6/8 will bring them all back since she summons all minions that died this turn with her Battlecry. Whitemane could be a great tempo card in the right situation, and might win games on her own with her Battlecry effect.
Overall these are mostly healthy changes to Hearthstone’s Evergreen set. However, there are still many cards players want to see nerfed. Leading the charge are Edwin Van Cleef, Zilliax and Leeroy Jenkins.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
You can like The Game Haus on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other TGH writers along with Gino!
