Bad card overall, it will see play if there is nothing else to play at cost, however, if it shows the minion it gives you info, and if you can silence it easily then that's really good.
I know it would be busted, I would like if it said that it damages neighbor minions always, not only when attacking, just to see something new. This could be balanced with stats/mana cost.
I am surprised about that any of the Shaman's core set spells doesn't have Frost or Fire tag. No Lava Burst, Frost Shock etc. Also it's weird to not see some Shadow Spells in Shaman's core set. We know that Shadow Shaman is a thing in lore.
Same with Hunter. I feel like some hunter spells might have Nature tag. Dire Frenzy could be an example.
I am also surprised that Deadly Poison has Nature tag. It seems weird but maybe they have other plans with it.
Don't get me wrong, It is still possible that they will add those in next Core Sets like Core Set 2022 or Core Set 2023. These were just my own expectations.
Other than that, I guess Team 5 wants to say us that; (Predictions Here)
- We will bring Beast synergy to Druid with new expansions of this year - We will bring Hero Power synergy to Mage with new expansions of this year - We don't want to see Murlocs in Paladins and Shamans this year - We want to see some poisoned stuff with Rogue in new expansions - Ressurrect Priest won't be supported this year.
However: if you mark an enemy, use Spirit Journey on Kindred and slay another unit you should mark another enemy leveling Kindred on the end of the turn
Libram Paladin has a lot of cards with strong synergies with Libram cards and broken cards for this deck like Lady Liadrin (mega refill) or Barov. It's not even comparable. Priest has no synergies at all. Blizzard knows that Tempo priest will never be a thing, they know it, but still gives tempo cards to them without giving it draw. It's like they want Priest to be bad on purpose. I'm getting tired of this.
I guess it all depends on the perspective. Warlock and Warrior seem to be the winners at first glance. As a mage main I feel screwed once more. Mage must be the hardest hit class as it got gutted.
Freeze Mage is entirely gone (yeah I know some will celebrate but they could have at least left us Frostbolt)
Polymorph: I mean why, just why? This was one of the most iconic mage cards and far from being OP
Arcane missiles: Not the biggest loss but was played in a couple of decks, especially in spell damage and as an enabler
Pyroblast: Could have stayed easily imo
Sorcerers Apprentice: The only change I can understand, will kill combo mage though (which after the Iceblock HoF was not really a thing anymore)
The new legendary indicates that they want to push mage more towards spell damage. However with no burn cards except Fireball this might end not that well. Mage really needs some good cards in the upcoming expansion otherwise it will end up trash tier.
It would be great if we can reach Core Set 2021 Guide Page from Expansions tab on the main page. :) I could only find it from the news pages about core sets and after they passed the 2nd page, it can't be found.
I don't know that if you are planning to add new tabs about upcoming changes as "Core Sets" , "Hearthstone Mercanaries" etc. but I only wanted to say it isn't easy to find right now.
Keep up the good work with the site. It is the best in the web! Cheers ! :)
I dunno, I'm kind of alarmed by that amount of stats on a 1-drop. Sure, it probably makes turn 2 less impactful, but if it doesn't get cleared then it's a dangerous early game tool. Plus, in the late game it's very cheap spell damage for a potentially large burst.
Plague Doctor and Tomb Pillager returning? Hell yes, I loved these guys. Even if Plague Doctor didn't see much play in the meta I love his opening line.
Baron Rivendare and the Nerubian Egg - I never got Curse of Naxxramas, I'm super excited to play with these guys now.
I enjoy seeing the CHARGE keyword reserved for powerful legendary minions - makes them feel like finishers
RUSH being added to the older CHARGE minions feels good, too. Now they're removal, and that's a good thing.
Every class having a 1 drop, and the 1 drops convey what the classes wanna do - play weapons, get good stats at a cost, heal, get additional cards, etc.
I love Warlocks new and returning demons. No more damn Pit Lord or Shadow imp being generated randomly.
THOUGHTS ON THE CORE SET
No Hogger? Maybe they'll give him a new legendary card in the Alliance set this year...
Nozdormu's a meme that'll probably only happen in Arena. But man those matches will be hectic
Mage losing a lot of it's old cards means we're going to get new toys to play with that we couldn't before - maybe a mass polymorph spell (although we still have devolve missiles so probably not). And spells that go face will be limited and Mage will now start getting minions that might be able to stay on the board. I do like Aegwynn's design, tho.
Not a lot of Murlocs - probably means we'll get more later since the core set has Murloc Tidecaller
Not a lot of Mechs? probably means we'll get more since the core set has cogmaster, and the horde and alliance have goblins and gnomes making big contraptions for their side.
The only Giant is the clockwork giant - and that may mean we'll get cards that will add to your opponents hand later this year. Or just a weird tech choice against greedy control decks. But no other giants means no more big 8/8 for zoo or tokens.
It does, but it also says the first time you slay a unit each round, so I'm not sure how you'd ever manage to trigger the effect on more than one target.
Look at High Abbess Alura. She is completely unplayable in the class because she forces you to abdicate of all your board control tools and run a completely buff centric deck around her. But the archetype lacks card draw so badly that you run into all sorts of issues. If you try to play conservatively, you fall behind. If you go all in, you run out of cards really fast. If you lose your board, it's pretty much impossible to recover due to a lack of resources. Your hand becomes stuck with buff spells that you can't do anything with because Priest can't dump those cards without any minions to buff while Paladin does that very easily with their Hero Power. The Priest Hero Power itself is useless most of the time because you have to keep healing your face and you don't want to be trading a lot. You pretty much have to build an early snowball in order to have any chance of winning.
We don't need to keep debating the details of Tempo Priest, but one last thing I'd like to bring up is that Libram/Broom Paladin spent a lot of time at the top of the tier list despite running relatively little card draw (often just Hand of A'dal and Salhet's Pride). I think the lesson there is that you don't need a ton of card draw if you can snowball early tempo with cheap buffs and your hero power. That's obviously a tougher thing for Priest to do, but cards like Crimson Clergy and Lightsteed and the buffed* Lightspawn help a lot with making the hero power a positive tempo play, and they don't need much more in the form of cheap buffs to consistently build on early game tempo. Paladin does a lot of that stuff better, yes, but I think Priest can get there too.
*I'm calling it a buff, since -1 cost is well worth the -1/-1 statline
I think for this to be good you need more cards that summon additional tokens. Now that galakrond and lackeys are gone I'm not sure how good this will be. Also in wild this will be incredible.
An aggressive deck might run a few small minions to win the game early. If they do not win by then, drawing a small minion at turn 7 really hurts your chance of winning. Old tracking used to remove the cards you didn't pick with this effect. By removing these cards you ensure you won't draw them later on.
My thoughts on individual cards are on their respective discussion pages. I'll use the space here for deletions and my overall reactions.
It feels good to see all of the garbage cards taken out. It also feels good to see the overused cards taken out, nostalgia be damned. In fact, they could have gone a little farther on that front. Like, I'm glad we get to play without Blizzard for the next year, but couldn't we also do without Brawl? That has always been the most toxic card in the game IMO, but it has never been touched.
Rogue without Eviscerate is going to feel weird. They are going to have to work so much harder to threaten lethal. But this change is definitely in line with the focus shifting back to the board for most classes.
I love that Shaman has been pared down to a more Elemental- (and lightning-)focused set.
It seems many classes are getting support for their hero powers, either directly or indirectly. That makes sense for the Core set, I think. It's the job of expansions to create archetypes and define play patterns.
The buffs are generally good without being good enough to outshine the power level of expansion cards. These changes make formerly unplayable cards playable, but not at all broken. As we know, competitive decks use cards that are slightly broken, and it looks like those are still to be found in expansions. For example, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a build-around legendary in the Core set. Baron Rivendare adds some zing to a Deathrattle deck, but he doesn't define it the way N'Zoth, the Corruptor did.
So in summary, while I may be a bit disappointed in one or two of the individual choices they made, I think Team 5 did a great job curating this inaugural Core set. I look forward to the fresh new meta we are about to plunge into!
A few thoughts from a longtime Control/Combo Hunter...
New Tracking is fantastic for us, though I'm sure some aggro mains won't feel the same. I loved Stitched Tracker when it was in Standard and the fact that this one doesn't add a copy makes sense for a Core set card that's not targeted like Selective Breeder.
Lock and Load gives me some hope for Spell Hunter support in the future and I like the mana reduction. However, it never felt good enough when Secrets were the cheapest viable spells so it may stay on the shelf for me unless we get another card like Rapid Fire. Though without Twinspells my standard Yogg decks will be hurting so maybe I'll be forced to run it for refill...
Biggest complaint is the loss of Unleash the Hounds as it was great for staying alive against early aggro boards. I know they wanted to get rid of charge, but making it 2-cost with Rush instead would've been cool with me (or even leave it at 3-mana if you don't want aggro decks to play it at all).
Also sad to see the loss of Animal Companion as it hurts Spell Hunter and Tundra Rhino as it takes away some OTK possibilities. I definitely understand why these two needed to be cut, companions were a little too strong and they're eliminating charge from the (non-legendary) menu, but I'll miss those guys.
As for the neutrals, I'm excited to test out the new dragons and think Taelan Fordring has meme potential. Also happy to play with Baron Rivendare in Standard again.
Biggest neutral regrets are the loss of Novice Engineer and Doomsayer as Hunter struggles with card draw and efficient board clears. (I know, I know, it's not part of their class identity)
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the changes and am looking forwad to the next year of Hearthstone!
However, this card may not be worth it if it ends up being too difficult to trigger. Lowly Squire was never really played until Demon Hunter cam along with their 1-mana hero power.
There are way too many bad Warrior cards for this to create. Some aren't even strictly bad, but since Warrior has several different archetypes, you're going to get stuff that just doesn't fit your game plan.
Remind you that most of the bad card are not in Warrior core set this time , so... Amazingly, there is almost no "bad spell" in the Warrior core set, 3 weapon are good if you don't have to put it in your deck yourself, and the minions are good also.
As a CW main for 6 year I can assure you every CW deck will run at least 1 copy of this card, 2 if there is no better value generator in the next expansion for the class
You're probably right -- I hadn't really analyzed the list that closely yet. Warrior seems to be in a pretty good place overall, for all of its usual archetypes.
New Warlock Minion - Felsoul Jailer
Bad card overall, it will see play if there is nothing else to play at cost, however, if it shows the minion it gives you info, and if you can silence it easily then that's really good.
New Warlock Minion - Enslaved Fel Lord
I know it would be busted, I would like if it said that it damages neighbor minions always, not only when attacking, just to see something new. This could be balanced with stats/mana cost.
Core 2021
I am surprised about that any of the Shaman's core set spells doesn't have Frost or Fire tag. No Lava Burst, Frost Shock etc. Also it's weird to not see some Shadow Spells in Shaman's core set. We know that Shadow Shaman is a thing in lore.
Same with Hunter. I feel like some hunter spells might have Nature tag. Dire Frenzy could be an example.
I am also surprised that Deadly Poison has Nature tag. It seems weird but maybe they have other plans with it.
Don't get me wrong, It is still possible that they will add those in next Core Sets like Core Set 2022 or Core Set 2023. These were just my own expectations.
Other than that, I guess Team 5 wants to say us that; (Predictions Here)
- We will bring Beast synergy to Druid with new expansions of this year
- We will bring Hero Power synergy to Mage with new expansions of this year
- We don't want to see Murlocs in Paladins and Shamans this year
- We want to see some poisoned stuff with Rogue in new expansions
- Ressurrect Priest won't be supported this year.
If i suspect more, I will add here.
Reachable Core Set Guide Page
Nav is getting a large refresh today - stay tuned!
Kindred Champion Reveal and New Shadow Isles Cards for Runeterra's Empires of the Ascended Expansion
However: if you mark an enemy, use Spirit Journey on Kindred and slay another unit you should mark another enemy leveling Kindred on the end of the turn
Core Set Reactions
Libram Paladin has a lot of cards with strong synergies with Libram cards and broken cards for this deck like Lady Liadrin (mega refill) or Barov. It's not even comparable. Priest has no synergies at all. Blizzard knows that Tempo priest will never be a thing, they know it, but still gives tempo cards to them without giving it draw. It's like they want Priest to be bad on purpose. I'm getting tired of this.
All 51 Returning Cards That Received Buffs and Changes in Hearthstone's New Core Set
All of the coming changes feel like the shake this game needed. Looking forward to try out the new old cards :)
Core Set Reactions
I guess it all depends on the perspective. Warlock and Warrior seem to be the winners at first glance. As a mage main I feel screwed once more. Mage must be the hardest hit class as it got gutted.
The new legendary indicates that they want to push mage more towards spell damage. However with no burn cards except Fireball this might end not that well. Mage really needs some good cards in the upcoming expansion otherwise it will end up trash tier.
Reachable Core Set Guide Page
It would be great if we can reach Core Set 2021 Guide Page from Expansions tab on the main page. :) I could only find it from the news pages about core sets and after they passed the 2nd page, it can't be found.
I don't know that if you are planning to add new tabs about upcoming changes as "Core Sets" , "Hearthstone Mercanaries" etc. but I only wanted to say it isn't easy to find right now.
Keep up the good work with the site. It is the best in the web! Cheers ! :)
Alexstrasza the Life-Binder
Not the best of cards, but nice updated artwork.
Shadowed Spirit
I love this card! Major upgrade to an OTK deck I have. Awsome artwork as well. Can't wait to try it out.
New Shaman Minion - Novice Zapper
I dunno, I'm kind of alarmed by that amount of stats on a 1-drop. Sure, it probably makes turn 2 less impactful, but if it doesn't get cleared then it's a dangerous early game tool. Plus, in the late game it's very cheap spell damage for a potentially large burst.
Core 2021
Things I LOVE -
Plague Doctor and Tomb Pillager returning? Hell yes, I loved these guys. Even if Plague Doctor didn't see much play in the meta I love his opening line.
Baron Rivendare and the Nerubian Egg - I never got Curse of Naxxramas, I'm super excited to play with these guys now.
I enjoy seeing the CHARGE keyword reserved for powerful legendary minions - makes them feel like finishers
RUSH being added to the older CHARGE minions feels good, too. Now they're removal, and that's a good thing.
Every class having a 1 drop, and the 1 drops convey what the classes wanna do - play weapons, get good stats at a cost, heal, get additional cards, etc.
I love Warlocks new and returning demons. No more damn Pit Lord or Shadow imp being generated randomly.
THOUGHTS ON THE CORE SET
No Hogger? Maybe they'll give him a new legendary card in the Alliance set this year...
Nozdormu's a meme that'll probably only happen in Arena. But man those matches will be hectic
Mage losing a lot of it's old cards means we're going to get new toys to play with that we couldn't before - maybe a mass polymorph spell (although we still have devolve missiles so probably not). And spells that go face will be limited and Mage will now start getting minions that might be able to stay on the board. I do like Aegwynn's design, tho.
Not a lot of Murlocs - probably means we'll get more later since the core set has Murloc Tidecaller
Not a lot of Mechs? probably means we'll get more since the core set has cogmaster, and the horde and alliance have goblins and gnomes making big contraptions for their side.
The only Giant is the clockwork giant - and that may mean we'll get cards that will add to your opponents hand later this year. Or just a weird tech choice against greedy control decks. But no other giants means no more big 8/8 for zoo or tokens.
Kindred Champion Reveal and New Shadow Isles Cards for Runeterra's Empires of the Ascended Expansion
It does, but it also says the first time you slay a unit each round, so I'm not sure how you'd ever manage to trigger the effect on more than one target.
Core Set Reactions
We don't need to keep debating the details of Tempo Priest, but one last thing I'd like to bring up is that Libram/Broom Paladin spent a lot of time at the top of the tier list despite running relatively little card draw (often just Hand of A'dal and Salhet's Pride). I think the lesson there is that you don't need a ton of card draw if you can snowball early tempo with cheap buffs and your hero power. That's obviously a tougher thing for Priest to do, but cards like Crimson Clergy and Lightsteed and the buffed* Lightspawn help a lot with making the hero power a positive tempo play, and they don't need much more in the form of cheap buffs to consistently build on early game tempo. Paladin does a lot of that stuff better, yes, but I think Priest can get there too.
*I'm calling it a buff, since -1 cost is well worth the -1/-1 statline
New Warlock Spell - Ritual of Doom
I think for this to be good you need more cards that summon additional tokens. Now that galakrond and lackeys are gone I'm not sure how good this will be.
Also in wild this will be incredible.
Core 2021
maybe they'll add a mass polymorph spell later this year?
New Priest Minion - Crimson Clergy
Lightwarden anyone? this has 3 hp but only grows 1 attack at a time and only from friendly heals. Doubt it will see play but maybe it gets support.
All 51 Returning Cards That Received Buffs and Changes in Hearthstone's New Core Set
An aggressive deck might run a few small minions to win the game early. If they do not win by then, drawing a small minion at turn 7 really hurts your chance of winning. Old tracking used to remove the cards you didn't pick with this effect. By removing these cards you ensure you won't draw them later on.
Riot Commits to Reworking Taliyah's Artwork in Legends of Runeterra
who gives a fuck?
Core Set Reactions
My thoughts on individual cards are on their respective discussion pages. I'll use the space here for deletions and my overall reactions.
It feels good to see all of the garbage cards taken out. It also feels good to see the overused cards taken out, nostalgia be damned. In fact, they could have gone a little farther on that front. Like, I'm glad we get to play without Blizzard for the next year, but couldn't we also do without Brawl? That has always been the most toxic card in the game IMO, but it has never been touched.
Rogue without Eviscerate is going to feel weird. They are going to have to work so much harder to threaten lethal. But this change is definitely in line with the focus shifting back to the board for most classes.
I love that Shaman has been pared down to a more Elemental- (and lightning-)focused set.
It seems many classes are getting support for their hero powers, either directly or indirectly. That makes sense for the Core set, I think. It's the job of expansions to create archetypes and define play patterns.
The buffs are generally good without being good enough to outshine the power level of expansion cards. These changes make formerly unplayable cards playable, but not at all broken. As we know, competitive decks use cards that are slightly broken, and it looks like those are still to be found in expansions. For example, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a build-around legendary in the Core set. Baron Rivendare adds some zing to a Deathrattle deck, but he doesn't define it the way N'Zoth, the Corruptor did.
So in summary, while I may be a bit disappointed in one or two of the individual choices they made, I think Team 5 did a great job curating this inaugural Core set. I look forward to the fresh new meta we are about to plunge into!
Core 2021
A few thoughts from a longtime Control/Combo Hunter...
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the changes and am looking forwad to the next year of Hearthstone!
Kindred Champion Reveal and New Shadow Isles Cards for Runeterra's Empires of the Ascended Expansion
can you mark more than one unit? i mean it says kill "units" with my mark
New Priest Minion - Crimson Clergy
Historically speaking, 1-drops with good stats and an ability that increased their attack have performed very well. Mana Wyrm, Battlefiend, Murloc Tidecaller, and Tunnel Trogg have all seen play.
However, this card may not be worth it if it ends up being too difficult to trigger. Lowly Squire was never really played until Demon Hunter cam along with their 1-mana hero power.
New Warrior Spell - War Cache
You're probably right -- I hadn't really analyzed the list that closely yet. Warrior seems to be in a pretty good place overall, for all of its usual archetypes.