Looking Into the Next Hearthstone Expansion

Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone remains an absolute smash hit of a collectable card game throughout its entire 11 year lifespan. As the game’s “Year of the Pegasus” ends the standard pool of cards rotates with it. With the next expansion “Into the Emerald Dream” releasing the three oldest sets leave the standard mode and are banished to only be played in wild decks. Festival of Legends, Titans, and Showdown in the Badlands have shaped the standard meta for a year now and losing those cards will certainly shake things up. Let’s take a look at what each class is losing, what they’re getting, and what this could mean for each of them once the battle over the world tree takes place in just a few weeks.

Death Knight

Death Knight’s win rate has been a roller coaster over the past standard rotation. All three of the expansions currently rotating out gave the class a wide range of playstyles and versatility. Death Knight will lose its excavate package from Showdown in the Badlands, though the Azurite Rat never saw all that much play. With the rotation of Showdown the cards Mining Casualties and Miracle Salesman which were used as early ways to get corpses and a board. It also loses Climactic Necromantic Explosion, a powerful finisher run in lots of Rainbow Death Knight decks. The biggest blow the class is receiving is the loss of Titans. Helya was so powerful she was jammed into every deck to weave in extra infinite damage. The Primus was a cornerstone of removal and discovery for Death Knights. This is the only class to have a unique deckbuilding restriction in the form of runes. A deck only has three rune slots for players to choose between any number and combination of blood, unholy, and frost.

As the sets from 2023 get shoved into wilds I predict that the reign of Rainbow Rune Death Knights will come to an end as well. With the inclusion of Starcraft into Hearthstone, Death Knight decks have started to step away from the one of blood, unholy, and frost rune building style. I expect this to continue into the “Year of the Raptor” as people are already valuing cards with two frost runes or two unholy runes in Zerg decks. The biggest issue to currently well performing decks is losing Death Growl, which is used in Zerg decks to spread deathrattles and speed up power growth. Death Knight will slow down a lot in this new standard meta, but the class’ spoiled legendary, Ursoc, supports a control playstyle over an aggressive one anyways. I predict that the raptor standard rotation will spawn a new wave of Death Knight decks focused on controlling the board and winning through sheer value.

Demon Hunter

There’s not much to talk about here. Demon Hunter has been out of the meta for a good while now, so this rotation should hopefully help more than it hurts. The class is currently the worst performing class in standard according to hsreplay.net, boasting only a 38.9% winrate. Demon Hunter’s most recent well-performing decks have all been centered around expansions that are still in rotation. Despite not performing as well as other classes, Pirate Demon Hunter lists rely heavily on cards from Perils in Paradise which isn’t leaving until next rotation. Similarly, Zerg Demon Hunter is flooded with the new cards from the Starcraft expansion and will be sticking around.

The class loses one of its most powerful weapons, Quick Pick, but as a whole loses nothing of real value from this rotation. Demon Hunters are struggling to climb ranks right now, so hopefully the legendaries it receives in the next Hearthstone expansion can bring some new life into this once powerful class. This class is the worst performing of the Zerg classes despite not being dealt any serious blows through rotation. I think it will continue to perform poorly until the expansion after “Into the Emerald Dream” as the class is not one to get the new “imbue” mechanic and will suffer until it gets its cake in the next major release.

Druid

Druid is going through one of the biggest shakeups in Hearthstone history, losing one of its core identities. After these three oldest sets rotate out, Druid only has a single card to accelerate their mana growth. New Heights is already seen in every deck and I expect that to continue over the next two years. The biggest decks to be affected in this change are Dungar and Hero Power. Travelmaster Dungar, an expensive card that cheated out big creatures, relied on heavy ramp and healing cards which are now gone. Some of the deck’s biggest baddest creatures are gone too. Thunderbringer brought immense pressure on the board while Yogg-Saron, Unleashed and Eonar, the Life-Binder were strong enough to win games on their own through their powerful titan abilities. With so many big hits missing, ramp at an all time low, and survivability options missing I doubt Dungar will see much play next month. Hero power focused decks could continue to work, as a handful of cards from the next expansion will discount the ability. Being unable to fit Groovy Cat in as a way to increase damage might be enough to cripple that archetype too.

I predict that Druids will be fine, as they always seem to be. This is one of the classes to get an “imbued” hero power, a new and upgradable hero power unique to each class that got one. Druid’s imbued power now summons a 1 attack and 1 health plant golem, whose power and toughness increase by one each time it is imbued. This playstyle is reminiscent of Jade Golems, a notoriously strong archetype from Hearthstone’s past. It seems Druid will fit nicely into a midrange/late game playstyle, focused on outvaluing opponents by summoning 5/5, 6/6, and then 7/7 plants every turn.

Hunter

Hunter is hurt by the cards it loses much more than most other classes. The two best decks at the moment, causing Hunter to be the highest winrate class, are completely ruined from this rotation. Secret Hunter lost almost all of its secrets, namely Titanforged Traps. It also lost all of its aggression and payoffs with Starstrung Bow and Mantle Shaper heading out the door as well. Handbuff Hunter not only lost the strongest creature in its list, Warsong Grunt, but also lost Always a Bigger Jormungar, the card that made the deck function through its overkill damage. Everything that is currently meta for Hunters has been completely ruined, though I wouldn’t worry too much.

Hunters’ imbued hero power allows them to reduce the cost of a random beast creature in their hand as well as increasing its damage. This leads me to predict that a Beast Hunter archetype could stomp its way to the top of the standard ladder. Hunters’ new legendary Goldrenn aids this playstyle by allowing friendly beasts to deal double damage. This beast archetype is beaing heavily pushed this expansion by the Hearthstone team. Hunter is about to do a complete 180 in playstyle, going from longer games focused on secrets or making cards in hand more powerful, into a faster more aggressive playstyle, and I am so excited for it.

Mage

Mage is a bit of a wildcard going into the raptor standard. The class only has one strong deck right now, Elemental Mage. The deck is losing a lot of its best cards, but elementals are a long standing creature type and Saruun, the card that made the deck, will probably continue to allow results. Mage will get an imbued hero power, though its effect and the class’ cards have yet to be revealed. I expect that Mage might recover from the lower end of winrates since it is receiving the new mechanic of the expansion. Mage is pretty dependent on how good its new cards and power is, because as of now it seems to only have the shell of a once great deck.

Paladin

Similar to Mage and Demon Hunter, Paladin decks have seen better days. Paladin currently sits at the second lowest winning class on hsreplay.net with only a 5% higher winrate than Demon Hunters. The class used to be dominant, using cards from Titans to form a powerful handbuff archetype. As the meta has shifted and gotten faster with more one turn kills Paladin just couldn’t keep up. Handbuff isn’t fast enough and Libram Paladin couldn’t compete with the strongest decks, even if the cards are new and not being rotated. The class is also getting an imbued hero power, though that has yet to be revealed.

It seems Paladin is being pushed towards midranged board-focused decks, as seen in its new legendary card. Toreth the Unbreaking is a new creature that causes divine shields, which normally block one point of damage, to now withstand three hits. This should hopefully breathe life into a shielded creature focused deck that can shield itself from control decks through this powerful new legendary. Festival of Legends and Showdown in the Badlands had a lot of divine shield support, but the core Paladin set should have enough to let the archetype thrive.

Priest

Into the Emerald Dream is adding cards that might cause one of the most powerful Priest decks in Hearthstone history. Currently Priest is dominating standard with Zarimi Priest. The namesake card, Timewinder Zarimi, gives you an extra turn if you’ve played 8 other dragons before it during the game. Naralex, Herald of the Flight, is a new 7-cost legendary that sets your dragon’s mana cost to 1. Since Zarimi is still around for another year I suspect that dragon-focused priest decks will dominate the standard meta using Naralex and Zarimi to play up to 13 dragons for only a single mana.

Priest too will get an upgraded imbue hero power, though that is yet to be revealed. The Priest specific legendary features a returning character, Aviana. Aviana, Elune’s Chosen will start a three turn clock, after which every card in your deck will cost only one mana for the rest of the game. Priest has taken a note out of Rogue’s book and might be the new king of mana cheating this expansion.The class is losing a lot of good cards, especially Aman’Thul, its titan, though its best deck is not hit much at all. I suspect that Dragon Priest will continue to dominate even more than it already is.

Rogue

Rogue, a class that is used to sitting on the top of the ladder, has been slightly out of the meta recently. The cards added in the Starcraft mini-set have really shaken up the recent metagame. Rogue doesn’t utilize the cards it received as well as the other classes in the protoss block. The best deck Rogue has at the moment is Weapon Rogue. The deck will lose a couple of the best cards in its list, namely Harmonic Hip-Hop and Mic Drop, though weapon focused decks have been around for a long time and I doubt that will change much here.

A thief archetype is being pushed in this next expansion through Rogue’s new legendary Ashamane. The legend fills your hand with discounted cards from your opponent’s class. Thief Rogue has been an archetype in the past, and using tools like Shadowstep the class will probably be able to make it work and explode out with discounted cards to overwhelm your opponent. Losing the cards from Festival of Legends that buff weapons hurt the class, but so too did losing Showdown in the Badlands. Rogue has a couple off-meta decks such as Ogre Rogue or Well Rogue that relied on cards from that expansion. This rotation brings a complete change in direction for Rogue at the moment, but knowing that the class has taken the most Hearthstone World Championship titles, I’m sure it will find its footing in no time.

Shaman

Shaman has always played an interesting role in Hearthstone’s totem pole. The class always seems to find itself at the very base of the pole, or proudly at the top. Currently, Shamans are wearing that golden crown as the second most winning class in standard. Shaman has taken advantage of the Starcraft mini-set far beyond every other class. Starship Shaman is currently an absolute powerhouse of a deck. Shaman can easily control the board, draw cards, and make big threats from launching starships. The deck relies heavily on cards like Shudderblock and Jim Raynor which are around for another year. I see no reason why this expansion would prevent this deck from continuing to dominate the ladder.

Furthermore, Shaman is the final class to get an imbued hero power, this time evolving your minions into more expensive ones. This new hero power synergizes extremely well with the class’ new legendaries Meritha and Ohn’ahra. Meritha resurrects your expensive minions, like the powerful new Ohn’ahra which plays three cards for free at the end of your turn. Evolve has always been a middle of the road archetype as it tends to be too reliant on luck. The playstyle seems a lot more predictable using imbue since you can evolve a creature several tiers at once. Shaman loses a lot of powerful flex tools like Needlerock Totem and Thrall’s Gift, but with how dominant it is even without those I see the class continuing to be powerful and making a strong new evolve deck.

Warlock

Warlock is pretty severely crippled from Festival of Legends and Titans being pushed into wilds. Symphony of Sins was a powerful versatile spell for every warlock deck. Sargeras, the Destroyer was one of the most powerful titans, able to wipe the board and create a never-ending threat on the board. Losing those powerful tools will really hurt the class’ versatility, and not being a part of the new major mechanic puts Warlock in a similar boat as Demon Hunter. Currently Warlock does have a powerful meta deck in the form of Zerg Warlock which relies on more recent Hearthstone expansions such as Starcraft and Perils in Paradise, so they should be able to last until the next expansion just fine.

Warrior

Warrior might be the class which got affected by the standard rotation the most. For the majority of 2023 and 2024 Warrior’s identity focused on playing slow controlling decks that win in the late game. Warrior had several decks that heavily relied on cards from Showdown in the Badlands and Titans. Odyn Warrior can no longer be played as its win condition Odyn, Prime Designate leaves the pool of usable cards. Similarly Highlander Control is unplayable without its backbone cards Reno, Lone Ranger and Deepminer Brann. Majority of the board clearing cards Warrior relied on in a control archetype are phasing out such as Bellowing Flames, Sanitize, and Bladestorm.

This forces Warrior into an uncomfortable position in which they have to find entirely new playstyles to capitalize off of.  Luckily, Warrior has some fun and powerful off-meta decks like Mech Warrior that rely on cards from Whizbang’s Workshop which will be around for a while. Into the Emerald dream is bringing in a new dragon-focused archetype to Warriors. Yondre is a dragon with taunt who brings about other dragon friends when he dies. Warrior seems to still want to play control, but through midrange decks rather than late game. Taunt and Dragon Warrior will focus on controlling the board using creatures rather than spells, and hopefully winning through big scaly beasts.

Reflection

Hearthstone is changing a lot, some classes for the better and some might still need some help. Every standard rotation causes some major shakeups in the Hearthstone meta and this seems to be no different. Thanks for joining us at the University of Alabama Gaming Team as we took a look at the future of this deep and addicting card game!