Hearthstone's upcoming game mode, Classic, will feature all the cards that were originally included in the Classic and Basic set. What's interesting is that Classic won't feature any of the balance changes pushed since the release of the game. Since we're talking about a game that is 7 years old, a lot of cards were changed along the way - some were slightly tweaked and still see some play today (Leeroy Jenkins, Hex), some were brutally butchered (Warsong Commander, Arcane Golem) and others were even buffed (remember last year's Priest overhaul?).
Given that we're talking about a lot of cards, we rounded them together in the same place, so that you'll be able to take a look at what will await in the future (or in the past!).
You can find further details on the new mode and today's announcement here.
Reverted Card Nerfs
Since 2014, all these cards were nerfed because of their raw power level or because of their interaction with other existing cards.
- Execute - cost will be decreased from 2 to 1 mana.
- Fiery War Axe - cost will be decreased from 3 to 2 mana.
- Flametongue Totem - cost will be decreased from 3 to 2 mana.
- Hex - cost will be decreased from 4 to 3 mana.
- Holy Smite - damage dealt will be decreased from 3 to 2, will target heroes again.
- Hunter's Mark - cost will be decreased from 2 to 0 (technically, from 2 to 1 and then from 1 to 0, since it got two nerfs in the last seven years).
- Innervate - will grant 2 Mana Crystals again (instead of just 1).
- Power Word: Shield - cost will be increased from 0 to 1 mana, but it will draw a card.
- Rockbiter Weapon - cost will be decreased from 2 to 1 mana.
- Soulfire - cost will be decreased from 1 to 0 mana.
- Starving Buzzard - cost will be decreased from 5 to 2 mana and stats will be decreased from 3/2 to 2/1.
- Warsong Commander - will read "Whenever you summon a minion with 3 or less Attack, give it Charge."
- Wild Growth - cost will be decreased from 3 to 2 mana.
- Abusive Sergeant - Attack increased from 1 to 2.
- Cold Blood - cost will be decreased from 2 to 1 mana.
- Ironbeak Owl - cost will be decreased from 3 to 2 mana.
- Leper Gnome - Attack will be increased from 1 to 2.
- Mana Wyrm - cost will be decreased from 2 to 1 mana.
- Arcane Golem - Health will be decreased from 4 to 2 and will gain Charge.
- Blade Flurry - cost will be decreased from 4 to 2 mana and will read "Destroy your weapon and deal its damage to all enemies."
- Eaglehorn Bow - will gain durability whenever any Secret is triggered.
- Equality - cost will be decreased from 4 to 2 mana.
- Flare - cost will be decreased from 2 to 1 mana.
- Gadgetzan Auctioneer - cost will be decreased from 6 to 5 mana.
- Keeper of the Grove - Health will be increased from 2 to 4.
- Knife Juggler - Attack will be increased from 2 to 3.
- Master of Disguise - the Stealth effect won't last for just one turn.
- Nourish - cost will be decreased from 6 to 5 mana.
- Ancient of Lore - will draw 2 cards instead of just 1.
- Bestial Wrath - will target any Beasts and not just friendly ones.
- Big Game Hunter - cost will be decreased from 5 to 3 mana.
- Force of Nature - cost will be increased from 5 to 6 mana and will read "Summon three 2/2 Treants with Charge that die at the end of the turn."
- Murloc Warleader - will also grant +1 Health on top of the Attack buff.
- Preparation - now reduces cost by (3), up from (2).
- Edwin VanCleef - cost will be decreased from 4 to 3 mana.
- Leeroy Jenkins - the cost will be decreased from 5 to 4 mana.
It should be noted that the following Murloc cards will be made global in scope and no longer only working on friendly Murlocs.
Reverted Card Buffs
Since 2014, all these cards received some upgrades, which will disappear in the Classic format.
- Charge - cost will be increased from 1 to 3 mana, will grant +2 Attack and the targeted minion will be able to attack heroes that turn.
- Holy Nova - cost will be increased from 4 to 5 mana and damages to the opponent hero as well.
- Temple Enforcer - cost will be increased from 5 to 6 mana and Attack will be increased from 5 to 6.
- Thoughtsteal - cost will be increased from 2 to 3 mana.
- Shadow Madness - cost will be increased from 3 to 4 mana.
- Bane of Doom - will summon only Blood Imp, Dread Infernal, Felguard, Felstalker, Flame Imp and Voidwalker.
Hall of Fame Goes Bye
Since the creation of the Standard and Wild formats, during each rotation some cards from the Classic or Basic set were rotated to Hearthstone's eternal format because they were deemed too oppressive or potentially dangerous for the game's future plans.
- Acolyte of Pain
- Conceal
- Divine Spirit
- Ice Lance
- Mind Blast
- Naturalize
- Northshire Cleric
- Power Overwhelming
- Spellbreaker
- Vanish
- Auchenai Soulpriest
- Azure Drake
- Coldlight Oracle
- Divine Favor
- Doomguard
- Holy Fire
- Mind Control Tech
- Ice Block
- Molten Giant (which was also buffed along the way)
- Mountain Giant
- Shadowform
- Prophet Velen
- Ragnaros the Firelord
- Sylvanas Windrunner
Minion Tribe Changes for the Classic Hearthstone Mode
In 2014, some minions did not have the tribe tag they have now.
- Al'Akir the Windlord, Baron Geddon, Ragnaros the Firelord, Earth Elemental, Dust Devil, Flame of Azzinoth, Frost Elemental, Lightspawn and Unbound Elemental will lose the Elemental tag, which was added in early 2017 with the Journey to Un'Goro release.
- Demolisher, Harvest Golem, Damaged Golem and Mechanical Dragonling will lose the Mech tribe.
Demons? Elementals!
Back in March 2020, Classic's Illidan Stormrage (the minion, not the hero), got replaced with Xavius - since the official announcement states that art and flavor changes will remain the same, what will happen with this one? You may think it's trivial, but it has some minor implications: in fact, Xavius summons Satyrs, which are demons, but Illidan used to summon Flames of Azzinoth, which are elementals.
Quote From Blizzard Will cards in the Classic format be the exact same as they were in 2014?All balance changes for these cards over the years will be reverted, but cosmetic changes will remain. For example: Felstalker will be Felstalker and will not revert to Succubus.
UPDATE - Celestalon confirmed that Illidan Stormrage will come back in Classic.
Quote From Celestalon Xavius will appear as Illidan in Classic.
Which cards are you the most excited about to see in their former glory? Let us know in the comments!
Comments
these changes only apply for classic mode, in wild the cards will be the same and no genn or baku on classic so even shaman will be the same.
I think you missed Preparation.
While I think this will be a fun treat for awhile, won't the meta for Classic get solved and stale rather quickly? I'm happy to have the feature as they said this isn't the new game mode, but I'm much more hyped for the new Core set.
Something that I'm sure is too complicated for them to do would be to be able to have different patches matchup against each other. Allow opposing players to have different card restrictions. Basically, how do the best classic decks match-up against current Standard. Shadowstep Leeroy Rogue vs. the current aggro Rogue meta. And then pick a few other points in time when the meta and nerfs were fundamentally different from each other. How do jade decks from Year of the Kracken match-up against the top decks from Year of the Raven. It wouldn't just be wild because you wouldn't have access to all cards for deckbuilding, just those from that patch era.
At the very least I hope they start doing some kind of rotation with Wild. There are so many possibilities with restricted sets and cards even without different patch versions of cards. This would also mean they don't need to nerf or balance Wild, just rotate cards to keep it fresh.
I fully expect this to work like WoW Classic down the line, though doing queues by era would also be cool.
Naxxramas will get added to the pool of cards, and then Goblins vs Gnomes (or both together, but I doubt it). It would give them a chance to legitimately sell the older content to a new audience for minimal dev time which makes it an amazing return on investment.
What I think is most interesting about that though is what it would mean for down the line of Classic. Hear me out.
Let's say Blizzard continues on and rereleases each expansion into Classic Hearthstone - and maybe the original base always remains playable still and they just call each addition "Year of the Blah" - what if they did so without ever rebalancing cards. So that Undertaker nerf? Yeah, it would never be added into the game. It would be another divergence of the Hearthstone timeline, and a damn cool one at that.
Ultimately, I just want to see a rotation, like you said. What they should do is make the rotation that is active in Arena also be active in Duels and then in this new constructed ladder. That way it limits confusion, the newest set will always be playable, and it will give us a chance to see old cards in really weird constructed scenarios. I still love the idea of Classic, and will certainly go play it, but yeah, staying power is questionable.
Thanks Flux. I asked this in another comment. You have a clearer view of where the game could go (or maybe you have some intel that you don't want to talk about).
Do you like all this format changes?
The face is the place
What about Mountain Giant?
It's in the Hall of Fame list. Are you asking what about it as in what was the "buff"? The Elemental tag. That's it
I'm certain it wasn't in the list of cards that got moved to the Hall of Fame when I asked this. It's still not in the list of cards that got the Elemental tag later. Neither is Molten Giant.
They missed a few things along the way, but we'll know everything about the Core set and the cards in Classic Mode in about 2 weeks as I think they said that info will be out a few days after BlizzConline (Feb 19-20).
The meta will definitely change compared to vanilla, but my guess is that it'll be aggro galore. Leper, Abusive Sergeant, Leeroy, much more charge... Call me a pessimist, but if Duels lost so much of a playerbase in one expansion because of bad balance, Classic will be like that but also unfun.
Aaah yea, aggro and miracle to the face. Leeroy for 4 mana + shadowstep + Leeroy for 2 mana + shadowstep + Leeroy for 2 mana +2x cold blood = 26 dmg to the face.
Or Force of Nature + savage roar = 14 dmg to the face - repeat next turn.
Or classic face hunter - face is the place.
I hadn’t thought about Xavius. Could they possibly have two versions?! Xavius for all modes other than Classic, but Illidan in the Classic format? I mean, some of these cards are already “mirrored copies” or however they referred to them. Take Leeroy for example. Pretty sure he’s staying 5 mana in Wild but will be 4 mana in Classic mode. So that means he’s technically a different card in Classic mode. No reason Illidan/Xavius couldn’t co-exist (kind of)
Celestalon said on Twitter that Illidan will be for Classic, Xavius for Standard and Wild.
Thanks for the update. Hadn't been clarified when I made this post, but seems I was spot on in my assumption.
I am not sure, but I think you missed Wild Growth
Thank you for summarising all the nerfs over the years! The list is a bit inaccurate though. Since the cards will revert to their version from the patch just before Naxx, Unleash the Hounds will remain at 3 mana.
We actually discussed it before publishing the article but apparently we didn't edit it out. For once, I'm not the one to be blamed lol
Edit: there you go.
Yeah, someone also mentioned the Murloc stuff and it didn't make it in either. I've now correctly added it.
You also missed that Holy Nova can now hit the enemy hero again.