Predicting the Future: Cards to watch out for

by Team [IHU] - 6 years ago



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Predicting the Future: Cards to watch out for

The future isn’t easy to predict. Some people get paid a lot of money to accurately predict things like sports and the economy. [DKMR]Varranis of team Don’t Kick My Robot is here today to make a few predictions. We’re not making money if any of these are right, but we’ll definitely have a blast trying our hand at predicting the future!

A huge part of collectible card games is the meta. We’ve all been witness to a fairly dynamic meta so far. Druid was considered unplayable a week before everyone declared it the strongest class. Hunter went from an outlier to the bane of the meta. Warlock has always been near the top, but even the current king of the meta has seen its own ebbs and flows. Most of these shifts in the meta have been in response to nerfs or fluctuations in the popularity of specific decks. A couple were due to innovation. Yet nothing has beset the world of Hearthstone like a new set of cards.

Consider how much the game changed when Blood Imp was nerfed and Unleash the Hounds changed forever. Now consider what may happen when hundreds of new cards are introduced to the game in one fell swoop. No one but Ben Brode may know when exactly that will happen, but to quote a Doomsayer, “It’s coming!”

A common phenomenon that occurs with new sets is that some older cards become significantly stronger or weaker. For example, Chillwind Yeti suddenly isn’t so exciting if a 4 mana 5/5 with a small drawback is printed and used extensively. The real gems are the old cards that get stronger. Most people want to try the new best thing and will overlook oldies that suddenly became goodies. Frequently, the real breakout decks in other card games are those that utilize older cards in a new way enabled by new cards. While it’s nothing more than baseless speculation to guess what the new cards may be, we can look at our current pool of cards and identify some that may see more play when new cards are released.

We find the two most important things to look for when searching for future gems are cards whose power level is reliant on other cards and cards that are very efficient. With those things in mind, let’s discuss specific cards!

Youthful Brewmaster

The most common cards that get better as more cards enter the game are those who rely on other cards to be powerful. The more cards that exist, the more likely such a card will have powerful synergy with another card. One such card is Youthful Brewmaster. We’ve chosen the younger counterpart of the two brew brethren. Costing 2 mana less is significant when you primarily value the ability.

We already saw Youthful Brewmaster get his broke on early in the beta. Before the Warsong Commander nerf, a fairly popular Warrior deck used Warsong Commander, Molten Giant, and Youthful Brewmaster to give the Giants charge and replay them with Youthful Brewmaster. Youthful Brewmaster allows you to reuse a battlecry, attack twice with a charge minion, or reset a minion’s health. He is very versatile and merely needs one especially powerful battlecry or charge minion to make him shine again. We don’t think it’ll take much to push this panda over the top, and we expect this card to be very relevant sooner rather than later.

Blessing of Wisdom

Blessing of Wisdom is incredibly versatile. Most often it’s a source of card draw, but frequently it can serve as a 1 mana removal spell since your opponent will usually be hesitant to attack with one of their minions you’ve buffed with Blessing of Wisdom. We believe this card is currently underplayed for two reasons. First, particularly aggressive decks can sometimes win fast enough that they don’t care about the number of cards you draw and can keep attacking. Second, and more importantly, Paladin has an especially weak card pool. Most significantly, Paladin is missing a cheap hard removal spell. No Arcane Shot, no Slam, no Frostbolt, nothing. While Blessing of Wisdom is strong, it requires follow-up removal to prevent the Paladin from being overrun. Hammer of Wrath, Consecration, and Truesilver Champion are all powerful cards, but 4 mana is often a turn too late if you’ve failed to make a strong turn 2 or 3 play. We could easily see Blessing of Wisdom becoming a Paladin staple once Paladin has a stronger card pool.

Mana Wraith

As players get more and more options to build decks, decks become more and more efficient. With a larger card pool, every deck won’t be shoehorned into specific card choices that may or may not fit its particular strategy. The more cards that are released, the more strong 1 and 2 drops will exist and the more likely it’ll be possible to lower your deck’s curve. These decks will rely on that efficiency to outperform slower decks during the first few turns. The more reliance decks place on efficiency, the more powerful disrupting that efficiency becomes.

Mana Wraith can’t wait. When Mana Wraith is online, a deck that plays numerous 1 and 2 drops suddenly can play about half as many minions per turn. It may be awhile before Hearthstone has a large enough card pool to enable incredibly efficient decks, but it’ll happen eventually. When it does, we’ll have Mana Wraith.

Mana Wyrm and Secretkeeper

You know those efficient minions I mentioned? We already have a few of them. We’ve lumped Mana Wyrm and Secretkeeper together as we feel they will fulfill similar roles in the future. Mana Wyrm isn’t the most interesting pick since it already sees significant play, but we feel it will be an even more prominent fixture in the meta in the future.

Mana Wyrm is arguably the most powerful and efficient 1 drop currently in the game, and it will only get stronger as Mage gains access to more spells. Right now a Mage is limited primarily to Arcane Missiles, Mirror Image, and Frostbolt as reliable means to buff their Mana Wyrm early. Frostbolt is the only one of those three cards we would consider a must play in Mage. The others are reasonably, but largely so due to their favorable interaction with Mana Wyrm. Do you think Blizzard will ever create another 1 or 2 mana Mage spell as strong as Frostbolt? Given time, we’d say it’s pretty likely it’ll happen. Mana Wyrm is already a phenomenal card, and it’s only going to get better.

Secretkeeper is similar to Mana Wyrm except that it’s not particularly good right now. Secrets are much more specific than spells and are only available to three classes. With all of Mage’s secrets costing 3 mana, it makes things even tougher for Secretkeeper. Paladin’s secrets are nothing to write home about. Current iterations of Hunter don’t have a lot of time to play around with a potential ½. But what if someone got a good 1 mana secret? What if that class had more than one good, cheap secret? Suddenly Secretkeeper seems pretty reasonable. We don’t expect Blizzard to stop printing new secrets anytime soon. It may not be long before Secretkeeper gets to see the light of day.

Master of Disguise

Four mana 4/4s with upside have some precedent of being strong. A 4/4 for 4 mana is a reasonable rate. It doesn’t take too much on top of that to make a card competitive. Dark Iron Dwarf has been in and out of prominence for a while. Is +2 damage better than stealth? It’s certainly more general, but we’re not so certain it’s better. We feel stealth is somewhat underrated. Granting stealth allows you to push through additional damage on future turns by protecting fragile yet powerful minions. It also allows you to protect minions with particularly powerful abilities such as Knife Juggler and Goblin Auctioneer. Master of Disguise seems particularly suited for a midrange, aggressive Rogue deck. While it may not be a perfect fit at the moment, new cards could make the stealth more valuable. There could even be a modified build worth playing now that no one’s discovered.

Tracking

Tracking already sees significant play, but it has the potential to be a defining card in Hearthstone’s future. Cards like Tracking have significant precedent in other card games. I would go so far to say that cards similar to Tracking in Magic: the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh define the way those games are played. It’s hard to say if Tracking will be the same in Hearthstone.

Tracking significantly improves a deck’s consistency by allowing you to look at a full 10% of your deck and choosing to keep one of those cards. In other card games, cards like Tracking are the glue that hold together the most powerful decks. They allow you to find your combo pieces, they allow you to find answers to threats, and they allow you to find your own threats when you don’t need an answer. They are also the cards that enable the incredibly efficient decks cards like Mana Wraith combat. Tracking could be that card for Hearthstone. Or Hearthstone could just be different enough to not need a card like Tracking. One way in which Hearthstone differs significantly from other cards games is deck size. Thirty cards is a scant few when compared to Magic’s sixty card decks. Hearthstone decks are already fairly consistent when compared to other games. While we expect Tracking to be a prominent card in Hearthstone’s future, it’s possible it will be outclassed by efficient card draw spells or be an unnecessary means of consistency.

Warsong Commander and Tundra Rhino

Charge has consistently proved itself to be one of the most abuseable mechanics in the game. Combos involving charge have gotten Warsong Commander, Unleash the Hounds, and even Charge itself nerfed. With this sort of precedent, it’s all but certain another overpowered charge combo will crop up again at some point. Warsong Commander and Tundra Rhino are of our more likely future culprits.

Clearly giving a 0 mana 8/8 Molten Giant charge was just a little too good. Limiting Warsong Commander’s trigger to minions with attack 3 or less is definitely a significant downgrade, but not one we feel will keep it out of the limelight permanently. She already has favorable interactions with Raging Worgen and Bloodsail Raider (the charge trigger happens before the buff). It’s inevitable there will be some cards in the future that will also interact favorably. The question is what is the right number of powerful, cheap minions? Every quality 1 and 2 drop makes Warsong Commander more viable. It may even just take one especially powerful 3 attack minion to push Warsong Commander over the top.

Tundra Rhino may have even more potential than Warsong Commander, but is costed accordingly. “Beast” is much less restrictive than “3 attack or less.” If Molten Giant was a beast, Tundra Rhino would be nearly as good as Warsong Commander once was. The most impressive beast currently is, fittingly, The Beast. Unfortunately one cannot play Tundra Rhino and The Beast on the same turn without the coin. Even that combination is only 11 damage. Tundra Rhino’s cost is much more limiting, but it’s ability clause is much broader than Warsong Commander. Just like the commander, it only takes one card to push Tundra Rhino over the top.

Both Warsong Commander and Tundra Rhino are prime examples of cards that rely on other cards to be powerful, and thus have some of the greatest potential to be powerful in the future.

Captain’s Parrot and Sense Demons

We are not joking! Captain’s Parrot could be the real deal someday. What makes both of these cards particularly intriguing is their ability to search out a specific card from your deck by only running one or two pirates or demons. Much like Tracking, we’re a little too early in the life of Hearthstone to appropriately judge the power level of this sort of consistency adding effect. In other card games, the ability to search your deck for a specific card is one of the most powerful effects you can have. Much like other cards we’ve discussed, these get more powerful, the better the cards you’re searching for are.

There currently aren’t any pirates particularly worth searching for. However, imagine that Azure Drake had an eye patch and a penchant for rum and could be sought out by a particular parrot. Paying 2 mana for a 1/1 that adds an Azure Drake to your hand would be a pretty incredible card, advantage engine. It’s the quality of the seafaring scoundrel that matters after all! One good pirate and we feel Captain’s Parrot could be singing its way into quite a few decks.

Sense Demons can already find Lord Jaraxxus and still doesn’t see much play. It’s possible Sense Demons just costs a mana too much to see significant play, however, it’s not worth discounting just yet. I’m not sure quite what manner of demon Sense Demons needs to see play, but we imagine there’s a potentially successful recipe out there.

Conclusion

These are just some of the cards we feel hold potential once new cards are released. Card games are incredibly dynamic and we can’t wait to see how new releases shake up the meta. What are some cards you think might be powerful once we have some more tools to work with? Let us know!

[DKMR]Varranis streams every Sunday from 10 AM – 4 PM EST at http://www.twitch.tv/varranis. You can find all of DKMR’s streamers on their website with times and the days they stream!

Written by [DKMR]Varranis

Discussions about this topic brought to you by Team [DKMR]

Decks to watch out for

Druid Ramp has become fairly popular recently. It utilizes Wild Growth to power out big minions like Ancient of Lore early and then uses Mark of the Wild to turn them into big roadblocks. I’ve included Savjz’s build below. [DKMR]Born has been doing well with this particularly spicy DKMR Shaman brew which uses Malygos to extreme effect. We’ve affectionately dubbed the deck “Zeus” for its indiscriminate use of lightning. The last deck I’ve included is the build of Hunter Aggro I used to make Legend this season. I’ve been a fan of Loot Hoarder in the deck recently as a reasonable threat that also draws you a card.