Speculating on the New Hearthstone Core Set - What Should We Expect?

We finally received the announcement we were all waiting for - during the next rotation, the Classic and Basic sets will leave Standard and they'll leave space to a new "Core Set". This is undoubtedly a great change and will help new players to keep up with the power creep that has pushed the Evergreen set piece by piece out of the meta; No longer will we have a pile of cards that don't make sense anymore in Standard!

Based on what we know so far:

• It will contain 235 cards, while the Classic/Basic sets have 383 (Source).
• This set will change every year and be completely free for all players (Source).
• You unlock cards in this set by leveling your heroes (Source).
• Some cards will be new (29), some will be chosen between the already existing ones and other will be rebalanced versions of old ones (Source).
• Shadowform will be part of the new Core set (Source).

Unfortunately, we are yet to know the exact cards and other major details, but we are certainly free to predict ourselves what we could see tomorrow.

Preliminary Thoughts - The Importance of an Evergreen Set

The most important aspect of an Evergreen set is that, as its name suggests, it will be there for a long time. In other words, it gives classes the chance to not fall behind if an expansion ends up performing worse than predicted by the devs. It reduces the risk of classes being forced in the dumpster and being unplayable for 4 months if their last set didn't turn out very powerful.

The lack of a solid Evergreen set increases the volatility of classes being between broken and unplayable. Shaman and partially Paladin are the perfect example of what we're trying to say: these classes have two of the worst Evergreen sets and, most of the times, they rely so much on what the expansions bring them (Librams, Cagematch Custodian) that they're either steaming trash or borderline broken, with very few exceptions. The problem with balancing cards around this minefield is that, once you print too many good cards, you reach that saturation point beyond which the class becomes extremely oppressive, and that happens because you didn't have a solid backbone that was able to sustain the class.

In the end, there needs to be a good starting point: not something extremely powerful, but something players and classes will be able to fall back to and that will support what classes are about and what will come in expansions. In this regard, we think a quote from ZachO, Founder & Head of Vicious Syndicate, is very significant.

Quote From ZachO

Let's look at Warlock: its entire evergreen set was based around the fear of Life Tap being too good, so 7 years ago they needed a bad set to make up for it, but those days are gone. Maybe Warlock needs some reasonable healing in its basic set: reasonable, not asking for Nether Breath, but slightly better Drain Life.

Warlock's lategame strategies are either too good or too bad because the class does not have survivability and can't heal, so no matter what they give Gul'dan - it still won't make the cut into the meta.

Positive Aspects - Balancing Freedom and the "Battlegrounds Effect"

When thinking about the new Core set, I came up with a concept I called "Battlegrounds effect". In other words, we think that balancing the game will become remarkably easier for Team 5. In fact, not only they'll be free to decide which cards will be part of this set, but there will also be way fewer problems when some cards will prove to be overperforming and the devs will have to step in and act. A good way to understand this point is by looking at Battlegrounds (and to a certain extent to Duels as well). Since its introduction, Bob's tavern has received many adjustments to its hero powers and units - certain heroes got introduced, buffed, nerfed or removed and reworked with a different hero power, and everyone is totally fine with it.

Now, what's the whole point of this comparison? Pretty much like the Battlegrounds units and heroes, the cards contained in the Core set will be handed out for free to everyone, which means that the devs won't be forced to take into consideration the players' collection as much as they do now while balancing the power level of said cards (remember when everyone crafted Zentimo, a totally useless Legendary, because it was core in Galakrond Shaman, only for the archetype to be gutted in the following two weeks?); moreover, they'll have more room to tinker with card balance without putting too much pressure on their shoulders: if some of these core cards will fail because they'll end up being too strong or too weak, they'll always be able to buff or just replace them with others.

In the end, as a developer, you can do pretty much whatever you want with a core set you give away for free (buff cards, nerf them, even ban them and replace them with others!), as long as it defines class identities well and gives players playable cards.

Setting the Standard

But now, what should we expect from this Core set? Like we said earlier, we believe this set should not include completely unplayable cards. If it really aims to be a solid backbone for classes to fall back to if needed, it doesn't need to contain just top-notch cards, but at the same time, cards that are beyond desperate when it comes to play rate shouldn't be included. In other words, it is important that this new Evergreen set will actually be of help. If we take a look at cards from the current Basic/Classic set, you'll notice that a lot of them are very situational tech options or power crept/useless cards even if randomly generated.

With this sentence, we're not meaning that this core set should have the same power level of a normal expansion, but rather that every card included in it should have some sort of functionality; Even though not every card should be very strong, they should at the very least have some use. In this way, players will have something free to experiment with, while at the same time exploring each class’ identity.

Moreover, we think that every class should have at least the basics minimal card draw, minimal removal, minimal life gain. Take Mage for example: Jaina should not be good at recovering life, but despite that, she has Ice Barrier, which is a nice standalone card that helps the class when the meta is particularly aggressive without completely overcoming this Mage’s weakness. We can say the same thing with Paladin and Druid for removals (Starfall and Consecration).

While these cards are not the best when compared to the tools other classes have access to, they make sure heroes are not completely devoid of a certain mechanic to fall back to in case the meta asks them to do so - they can be mediocre/average and that's acceptable, but classes should not lack something completely that may prevent other synergies printed in expansions to see play because they did not have enough support.

No-Minion Mage explains this perfectly: since Ashes of Outland, each meta has hosted at least a couple of very aggressive decks (especially thanks, but not limited to the introduction of Demon Hunter in the game) - if this archetype, which carries a very restricting deck building condition, did not have a niche recovery tool like Ice Barrier, it wouldn't have seen the already small amount of play it has seen until now.

Another reason to have a viable and comprehensive Core set is not being forced to keep printing broken cards with the same goal. Take Priest: even after the Holy Nova buff, the class has never had a good Evergreen AoE tool - for this reason, being Anduin an control-oriented hero, the devs were forced to keep printing very good removals (Dragonfire Potion, Psychic Scream, Mass Hysteria, Plague of Death, Soul Mirror and so on). While playing against the same removal every time may become frustrating (see Brawl for Warrior and Blizzard for Mage), it allows the classes to have something that they can easily rely on if they need to.

New Keywords and Mechanics

With the introduction of a brand new Core set, we are fairly confident that we'll also be able to receive what the last 7 years of game development introduced in the game: in fact, there are a lot of very cool mechanics (some of which are a must nowadays) that have been introduced with the expansions but that are absent or scarce in today's Evergreen set. Want some examples? If we don't consider expansions-specific keywords like Adapt, Reborn, Magnetic, and Lifesteal is represented by just Demon Hunter's Aldrachi Warblades and Soul Cleave; Coordinated Strike is the only Rush-related card and we have no Discover tools at all, as well as very limited value generators (Thoughtsteal, Tome of Intellect, Pilfer, Call of the Void and Brightwing).

Seeing how far the game has gone in the past 7 years, we think it is time we see reasonable Rush, Lifesteal and Discover cards in this Core set and be able to live with it. In fact, there are cards in the past that represent these mechanics and that, at the same time, would help each class to define what it should be good about.

To be completely precise, we're not saying these cards will be in the next core set (you can find some examples in the next section), but rather that they are very good at representing what their respective classes are about! No one really wants a Core set that is all about random generation, but introducing some won't hurt the game at all.

Cards We Expect to See Again

Now that we gave an idea of what we expect from the upcoming Core set in terms of support, power level and mechanics, it's time to make some names.

Going through our collections, we selected a few cards for each class that we think might be solid inclusion for the next Evergreen set - the following cards support game styles and archetypes that have been pushed in the past but still need some support to emerge, or simple and basic mechanics that a class should always have at disposal.

• Druid - Ossirian Tear has almost always been way too clunky to be a dominant strategy, but Fandral Staghelm is flavorful and flexible enough to be considered in this article;
• Hunter - Rexxar got some serious Secret support from the last expansion with Rinling's Rifle, Open the Cages and Petting Zoo: we think that bringing back some Secrets from the past like Cat Trick or Hidden Cache (handbuff synergy as well) would make up for a solid Hunter Core set. Moreover, we also expect Tracking to keep hanging out in Standard: even though it got printed in the early stages of the game, it perfectly suits Rexxar's class identity;
• Mage - given Jaina's Spell Damage focus and spellslinger's nature, we wouldn't be surprised to see Arcane Blast and Deck of Wonders make a comeback;
• Paladin - Consecration is the only removal at Uther's disposal if we don't count Enter the Coliseum and partially Lord Barov: while this could be a good chance to print a brand new one, we feel like we'd be okay to keep seeing this one in Standard. On the other hand, we could easily see some Silver Hand Recruit support: Muster for Battle is an overtuned card, but Crystal Lion or Vinecleaver sound like neat candidates;
• Priest - while Curious Glimmerroot would be a nostalgic and solid choice, Drakonid Operative is what Priest might need to resurrect its Dragon archetype. More random crap for Priest, yay!

• Rogue - Swashburglar was brought back during the Doom in the Tomb event: it was one of the most successful cards and was well received. Rogue needs solid 1-drops and this one is both Burgle and Pirate support for Valeera;
• Shaman - during the Year of the Phoenix, Team 5 gave Shaman lots of Totem support. Totemic Surge, EVIL Totem and Splitting Axe will rotate, but Draenei Totemcarver could be a nice bridge between a turn 3 Totemic Reflection and a turn 5 Totem Goliath;
• Warlock - Archwitch Willow is yet to receive worthy big demons support, so why not bringing back a big hitter like Voidlord (good 9 drop, but problematic only if played on 4 with Voidcaller or on 5 with Skull of the Man'ari)?
• Warrior - Militia Commander is a good example of a good but not oppressive use of Rush that could be easily included in the Core Set.
• Neutral - this is where Team 5 might surprise us the most. While many people are asking for a return of The Lich King, we think that having back Azure Drake, Ragnaros the Firelord and Sylvanas Windrunner could be a good move: time has passed, and these cards are not as dominant as they used to be. Dreams aside, Tar Creeper, Corpsetaker, Elise the Trailblazer and Dr. Boom are all passable choices to us.

Cards That Should Not Make the Cut

When thinking about which cards from the past will make the cut in the new Core set, we probably have to preventively cut out those who had/have high potential to create a polarized meta and repetitive gameplay pattern.

It's been almost three years since their release, but do you remember Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane? These two cards were rotated a year earlier than their set (The Witchwood) because they enabled insane synergies and gave birth to some of the most polarized matchups. Odd Warrior is one of the best examples: if your opponent was a combo deck with limited burst or an aggro deck (Odd Paladin, Odd Rogue), you were pretty much guaranteed to win (we're not talking about 60/40 matchups, but 80/20); on the other hand, if you were a Mecha'thun deck or you needed a lot of setup, you were golden, since Odd Warrior wasn't (and pretty much isn't) able to apply any pressure whatsoever.

But that's not all: while Kingsbane would easily be a tier-S deck in today's Standard (especially with Kobold Stickyfinger rotating and very few chances to see him again), Flamewaker would be a very frustrating card, especially in combination with Conjure Mana Biscuit and even without Sorcerer's Apprentice. Such cards are very likely not only to create an unhealthy meta, but also to overshadow future expansion cards and create intricate balancing issues.

Again: while we think this Core set should not contain terrible cards, we also don't think all of it should be broken.

Conclusion

There are just a few hours between this article and the official announcement at BlizzConline, but we have pretty clear ideas about what we think should come in the next Core set.

In the end, no matter the specific cards that will be included in this new Evergreen set, we think this will be a great step forward (and one of the biggest in the history of the game as a whole) from both the economy and meta points of view. We do expect some whiffs at the beginning -no one is perfect and such a big change needs a fine-tuning that can't be possibly completed by just internal playtesting - but we're still confident that the pros will definitely exceed the cons.

All in all, this is a great opportunity for the game and we're thrilled to see the official announcement! Be sure to stay tuned to Out of Cards throughout BlizzConline this weekend for all our coverage.

What do you think of our prediction? Do you wish to see any particular card or mechanic back in Standard? Give us your opinions in the comments below!