Dean Ayala continues his community engagement in a Wednesday night Q&A this week where he let some details slide on the upcoming core set cards!
Although his tweet didn't give us specific cards as he doesn't want to spoil anything, he did mention that some of those cards are from his favourites.
Quote From Dean Ayala Tell us more about the core set for next year! What cards are you excited to see in standard?
Very sneaky. I don't want to spoil any cards! All of them will be released in due time. Some of them are my favorite ever cards, though.
Well, ain't that lucky! A week and a half ago, Dean made a tweet about his top 10 favourite cards in Hearthstone! Although this is definitely not an exhaustive list of his favourites, we might be able to look forward to the return of at least some of these cards to Standard. Which cards of Dean's favourites do you think will make their return to Standard? Let us know in the comments below!
Quote From Dean Ayala My Top 10 Favorite Cards
- Defile
- Ultimate Infestation
- Rin, the Disciple
- Dr. Boom, Mad Genius
- Dire Frenzy
- Fel Reaver
- Zeph
- Void Ripper
- C'Thun
- N'Zoth
(made in prep for a favorite cards poll….)
Not trolling at all here, I thought I read an article one time where it said your favorite card was Aluneth. Is that right and it just changed over time? Just curious!
I get asked that question so often I usually just answer with one of my favorite cards. I think Powermace and Aluneth would get honorable mention, though. (Source)
and this top 10 is sort of a combination of my personal pref and my favorite designs (Source)
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 12 - Day 2 [Finished]](dark-beyond-reveals-day-2-thumb.webp)
Comments
1. Please don't bring back past hero cards!
2. If blizzard wants powerful random summons deciding their tournaments, then by all means bring back cards like Fel Reaver and completely make the competitive scene more of a joke!
3. Defile is an interesting case. The problem with this one is that every clear is going to have to be better or more efficient than Defile or it will never see play. Or it will have to enable a different archetype like School Spirits. I do not think it makes the cut unless they plan on giving warlock little to no damage removal.
4. C'thun was a very slow card in WOTOG and it is even slower by today's standards. The problem here is that we would have all the support cards taking up core set slots that could be used for more interesting cards. I like C'thun decks but No Thanks!
5. Hearthstone needs more Class specific highlander cards (especially for classes that do not have them yet) not neutral ones. No thanks Zephers!
6. N'zoth is too good in the late game and generally leads to turtle strategies. No thanks. Just create a new less powerful version in an expansion.
7. Aluneth. So Blizzard, are we going to limit Mage's draw or burn? I didn't think so. No thanks.
8. Rin, Dire Frenzy, Power Mace, and Void Ripper all seem fair and flexible enough. They all create reasonable archetypes. These would be good inclusions. I do see another mech expansion coming with a mech-centered key word so Power Mace might be better than you think it currently is.
9. UI - hard pass!
Only one card that matter:
Please, not UI or hero cards
I just hope they bring back Tess Greymane. It was fair but most of all was fun. Thief Rogue it's an archetype I would be happy if it becomes permanent
I HOPE NOT.
To much of the core/classic set would have to be thief support to support tess, to the point that it would be basicly ALL of it.
And rogue identies would be lacking,really lacking.
And thief rogue is a pernament archetype its like like freeze shaman/murloc warlock ,it something that keeps getting support almsot evry single expansion.
I've always said that Dean is a very fine person. Excellent choice of top cards.
There's a clear, clear obvious choice which one to bring back first!
Defile is the ultimate skill card when you want to make the efficient minion trades to get the best clear possible. It's the one card nobody would feel salty about if they lose to it
I don't dislike Defile at all, but I also wouldn't want it back in Standard. Perhaps I'd be more happy to see it return if I didn't currently hate control warlock because of Tickatus, but as it stands that piece of s*** makes me wish warlock removal was less efficient, not more.
Defile was absolutely fine alongside Rin, the First Disciple (a.k.a. the fair version of Tickatus), who is conveniently on the list, but is probably too good when control warlock's win condition is already so strong and rage-inducing.
Edit: OK, so Bloodreaver Gul'dan was another piece of s*** win condition that was around with Defile... man, I hate warlock designs sometimes -_-
Edit 2: Yeah, I knew I'd get a few downvotes for this one. No regrets though. Tickatus can burn in a pit with all the cards he destroys. I'm (not at all) keen to see how the devs' plan to return control games to their hay day of having to save up resources and removal for specific threats works out when Tickatus stops you being able to play the long game anyway.
Not UI... Please 🙏
Random opinions:
All in all, I'd like the returning cards to be older than last rotation and cards that see little to no play in Wild but which could make an impact with a smaller card pool. I think there's no sense in bringing back strong meta-defining cards.
ALOT of those cards are broken so fair inclusions would probable be fel reaver, void ripper, and dire frenzy, (would have said powermace but shaman has no mechs). And I'd be totally fine to see those 3 cards join core, maybe even rin!
Well, Fel Reaver cannot be allowed to exist in the same meta as Silas Darkmoon, so that's out.
It was recently mentioned that Team 5 prefers to take breaks between releases of Hero cards, so Dr. Boom, Mad Genius is unlikely (also people hate him).
It was also recently mentioned that singleton support was rotating out, so no Zephrys the Great.
C'Thun can't happen without his specific support cards, and it would be weird to have some Old Gods but not others, plus it would be super weird to have two different versions of Old Gods in the same Standard meta, so no N'Zoth, the Corruptor.
I think there will be riots if Ultimate Infestation ever returns to Standard. (Really, Dean? Printing five 5's on a card does not constitute good design.)
Powermace is no good as a Core card because it's just weird to give Shaman Mech synergy unless the expansion is themed around Mechs.
The others would probably be fine. In fact, all the cards I haven't excluded are fun and well-designed without being overpowered, so I'd be glad to see them in Core.
defile is the ultimate aoe. pls make it standard again
Oh God. Have mercy on us all...
Of the ones listed, the ones that I feel are most likely to be added would be Defile, Rin, Dire Frenzy, Fel Reaver, Void Ripper, and possibly Aluneth.
If I assume two Legendaries per class in the new Core set, then Rin could be an interesting win-condition for Warlock in the Core set, and Aluneth could be a cool "support" Legendary for the Core set in Mage.
Fel Reaver would be an addition worth trying for Aggro, and it's a card that could actually be an interesting teaching tool for new players. Void Ripper opens up more play possibilities.
Ultimate Infestation is honestly probably not that bad of an addition anymore, but they might retract from adding it just because of the general reception of the card. Same thing kinda goes with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius (and I partially doubt that they'd want any hero cards in the Core set, but I don't know for sure). C'Thun would actually be kinda interesting, but then you'd have to relegate 18 of the 29 existing cards to just C'Thun cards (all 17 of his cultists, and then C'Thun himself). N'Zoth isn't a bad choice either, but it might be a bit too limiting. Powermace would be okay, but I don't see Mech Shaman being a deck they support any time soon. And Zephrys... I'll actually be glad to see him gone.
Defile seems to be on quite a few "Top" lists; don't know if it's on mine, per se, but I acknowledge how cool it is. Getting that perfect clear feels so good.