Today, January 24th, is World Education Day! To celebrate this rather amusing festivity we rounded up a bunch of educational facts related to Hearthstone that we are sure you'll enjoy!

If you like this kind of content and would like to see more, make sure to check out our Easter eggs article!

1) Nothing? I AM A GOD!

Unlike The Curator's Amalgam, Fish of N'Zoth is not a total fantasy character: in fact, it has some small lore. For those who are not familiar with World of Warcraft, Queen Azshara was once the ruler of the Kaldorei Empire and one of the strongest characters ever existed. However, due to a series of unfortunate events, her whole empire got swallowed by the Great Sea and she would've died together with all her people if it weren't for the intervention of N'Zoth, God of the Deep, who was imprisoned at the depths of the sea. From that moment, Azshara and her people became nagas and ruled from the underwater city of Nazjatar (which is also what Darkscale Healer hints in her Battlecry).

In the following trailer, N'zoth appears to her as a fish - I recommend you to watch the whole thing even you are not a WoW fan (art, music and voices are all beyond amazing), but if you don't care just skip to 0:52 and 2:40).

However, the reason why we got it as a token in Battleground is completely different: as the tweet below states, Hearthstone Designer Iksar (who recently answered interesting community questions on Twitter) is a very big fan of this trailer and asked Team 5 to somehow introduce the fish in the game. While it didn't make the cut as a Darkmoon Faire card, it still made it to Hearthstone via Battlegrounds!

Quote From John McIntyre

Iksar is a huge fan of the N'Zoth fish from the Warbringers cinematic. He insisted that I include it in Madness at the Darkmoon Faire. He changed his desktop to the fish and reminded me almost everyday. I couldn't find a good spot for it so I made this for his wedding.

Almost a year later and I'm working on Battlegrounds. I finally got to add the fish to the game with the new N'Zoth hero. Thanks for not firing me Dean.

2) A Worthy Tribute

You should be familiar with Nadina the Red, Tavern 6 Battlegrounds unit with Dragon synergy. Pretty much like Fish of N'Zoth, Nadina is not a fantasy character at all: in fact, she represents a tribute to former Blizzard Community Manager (and Savjz's wife), Christina Mikkonen. Her warcraft character, named Nadina, was accompanied by her dragon pet companion, Hangry, which is the basis for another Battlegrounds unit: Hangry Dragon.

Moreover, they both appear in Nadina the Red, a card from the original World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.

Hangry Dragon Card Image.       Nadina the Red Card Image
 

3) Darkness Consume You!

Remember Shadowform? One year ago it was part of the very weak and forgettable Priest Evergreen set, but then it was sent to Wild during the March 2020 set rotation and got replaced by the much more useful Shadow Word: Ruin. Shadowform was definitely a cool card, but Anduin has never received enough support for it to be viable (except being incredibly powercrept by Shadowreaper Anduin). When you play it for the first time, you get a 2 damage ping Mind Spike; moreover, if you play it a second time, it will upgrade your hero power to a 3 damage ping Mind Shatter.

Those two Hero Powers don't have original arts like Voidform or Galakrond's Wit, but they reuse specific parts of Corruption and Reliquary Seeker's arts, which also come from the original World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Here's a visual representation of how the original art was used for these cards.

Mind Spike Card Image 

 

Mind Shatter Card Image  

4) Look How The Turntables

Harvest Golem and Foe Reaper 4000 are playable minions from the Classic and Goblins vs Gnomes sets respectively, but these days they are far more popular in Battlegrounds than in constructed.

Worth noting is that, based on lore, the power level represented by their cards is not correct;. In fact, it should be the other way around! When Harvest Golem dies it spawns Damaged Golem, but this minion's art represents Foe Reaper 5000, a version of Foe Reaper 4000 that is found in World of Warcraft's "The Deadmines" dungeon. Clearly it has been upgraded through the research of the Defias, Brotherhood.


Foe Reaper 5000 in World of Warcraft.

5) Identity Theft is Not a Joke, Jim!

As you might have noticed reading through this article, a lot of Heartstone's early card art comes from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. In particular, there are a few interesting cases in which the developers decided to use a specific art for other characters.

  • Mal'Ganis's HS art comes from WoW TCG's Varimathras, Dreadlord Insurgent, and Mal'Ganis' WoW art is used for Battleground's Nathrezim Overseer;

Mal'Ganis Card Image      Nathrezim Overseer Card Image

Malygos Card Image     Kalecgos, Arcane Aspect Card Image

  • King Krush's art comes from the card The Fare of Lar'korwi (a Ravasaur that can be found in the Un'Goro crater): in World of Warcraft, Krush is a much greener dinosaur, like the one depicted in Dinotamer Brann's card art.

King Krush Card Image    King Krush, Untamed Card Image

6)🦀 Bada 🦀 Snip 🦀 Bada 🦀 Snap 🦀

SN1P-SN4P is a Legendary card that all players received for free almost two years ago during the Rise of the Mechs event. It was an absolute unit that made an impact in both Standard and Wild and even caused the existence of Sn1pLock, one of the strongest and most oppressive decks to ever exist.

However, the story behind Sn1p is rather interesting. There was a card called Murloc Muncher that was planned to appear in The Boomsday Project set but was cut prior to release. While we have no idea about what kind of card it was, we know that it was supposed to use SN1P-SN4P's card art.


SN1P-SN4P's concept art by Nicola Saviori.

We can clearly see its crab-like aspect, very reminiscent of other Hearthstone Murloc-munching units like Hungry Crab and Golakka Crawler; Maybe it was supposed to be yet another tech card.

7) TRIFLING GNOME! YOUR ARROGANCE WILL BE YOUR UNDOING!

A long time ago, Lord Jaraxxus was targetable by Repentance and Snipe, meaning that you could find yourself with 11 or even 1 (!) health and not the usual 15. Don't believe us?

Thankfully, this interaction got changed back in Knights of the Frozen Throne so we can all rest safe knowing we can have Jaraxxus with his beautifully capped 15 Health. Here are up-to-date videos showcasing attempts to trigger these interactions.

Amusingly, the Lord Jaraxxus and Sacrificial Pact interaction was removed early last year, but does not change the fact that the card was and is still unplayable. Maybe one day, Jaraxxus.

8) Champions' Food

Hungry Crab is a very situational card. Nowadays you almost never include it in your deck unless the meta is completely flooded by Murlocs (that's why our own Linkblade91 has two copies ready just to be safe) and even if that is the case, you'll see it most of the times from Zephrys the Great. 

Our fun fact comes from back in the day, Hearthstone streamer Trump (the mayor of Value Town) won a tournament during the beta because he predicted people would bring Murloc Warlock (what a time to be alive), to which he responded teching two copies of Hungry Crabs in his decks and therefore punishing all his opponents. Like he would say... combo-wombo!

Here's a short clip from the event showcasing the madman. Remember: back in the day the game was all about tempo - that's why people brought a deck like Murloc Warlock. Life Tap was and is insane and losing a friendly unit for 1 mana and having to fight against a 3/4 was quite the swing turn.

Happy World Education Day! Did you know these Hearthstone facts? Which fun bits of trivia do you know that we missed? Let us know in the comments below!