Following Patch 20.2's addition of Diamond Ragnaros the Firelord to those who own all the Legendary cards from the Legacy (formerly Classic) set, the process of adding old Diamond cards into the game that Iksar mentioned a couple of months ago has begun. Since we're really excited about these, and so is the community, its time to highlight the best possible targets for Diamond cards for pre-existing cards.
With today's article, we'll be looking at the Year of the Kraken, the first year in Hearthstone's Zodiac which saw the release of Whispers of the Old Gods, One Night in Karazhan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan.
Here are the criteria we followed when picking the cards:
- At least one Neutral Legendary per set/adventure, but Class Legendaries are valid as well;
- The stronger the better - upgrading a Legendary to Diamond without chances for it to see play would really suck!
- Meme-potential - a card the community has fond memories of or that is famous because of memes about it.
In case you missed them, here are our suggestions for the sets of Hearthstone's first 2 years.
Whispers of the Old Gods
We cannot possibly talk about Hearthstone memes without mentioning our Lord and Savior. The first real 'casino' card in Hearthstone, OG Yogg has always been a fan favorite. You can pretty much jam it in every Control deck that runs a handful of spells and resort to it as a form of an emergency button for when the game looks compromised or just jam it because you want to embrace the RNG and let him take the wheel. Just make sure your popcorn is ready.
Another very popular Old God and my personal favorite. N'Zoth, the Corruptor has never stopped seeing play and has been a part of many decks since its existence. Being a card with an effect you can build your deck around, it has promoted many off-meta strategies that could make use of some solid Neutral Deathrattles. What kind of Deathrattles are we talking about? Mistress of Mixtures, Sludge Belcher, Bloodmage Thalnos and the last (but definitely not least) Khardoot Defendoot, but it certainly didn't fail to show up in high-profile builds like Reno Warlock, Mill Rogue and Reno Shaman.
I think the more complex the art, the better the Diamond upgrade would be so since N'Zoth has many tentacles in its art's foreground, we think that seeing them moving around out of the card's border would make for a lovely animation!
Pretty much like when you ask your parents if they have a favorite child and they answer no, but deep inside they do play favoritisms. Rag already received a Diamond version of itself in its “base” form, but I genuinely think that Ragnaros, Lightlord's upgrade would push our Wild peeps to experiment once again with Big Duel! Paladin, a very fun deck I have fond memories of.
On a side note, when you think about the Rag brothers, your mind cannot really go anywhere else than to this Wronchi animation from back in the day!
One Night in Karazhan
Another set with pretty underwhelming Legendaries, especially for today's meta. Even though the last time Medivh, the Guardian saw solid play was back in The Boomsday Project meta, thanks to Juicy Psychmelon and Star Aligner shenanigans (which eventually led to Aviana's nerf), Medivh still remains an important Warcraft character and the protagonist of this adventure: he's literally the star of the show, and you cannot possibly think that he should not shine. Shine like a Diamond.
Honourable Mentions
Barnes - I'll just leave this here, perfectly aware of the fact that making this suggestion is a life-risking decision.
Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
The leader of the Kabal as well as the first Highlander support card printed after Reno Jackson, in a set which also featured the powercrept Inkmaster Solia (Dragoncaster sends its regards), the anti-synergistic Krul the Unshackled, and the completely fair Raza the Chained. Kazakus was (and is) truly a powerful card, and he still allows Mage, Priest and Warlock to be the superior classes when it comes to go Highlander.
Since Gadgetzan is quite close to the Barrens, Kazakus made an appearance in the last expansion as well, Forged in the Barrens, in Kazakus, Golem Shaper. Even though the requirements needed for the Battlecry are different, both effects are truly unique and deserve all the credit that is due.
Even those who love Patches, they hate it deep down. On the surface it is just a Stonetusk Boar with the Pirate tag, but its ability to be cheated out of the deck was so powerful that even classes that weren't into Pirate shenanigans used to run it alongside a couple Southsea Captain in order to get a 3 mana 3/3 with a free 2 damage ping. Yes, the card was that good back in the day and you can tell it would still be broken today since its nerf (it originally had Charge, but it was later removed in order to slow it down) is yet to be reverted.
We can definitely see why people would and would not want this card to be upgraded into a Diamond version, but since we don't make the actual choices and since it will eventually take some time before we'll get to know Team 5's decision, let me entertain you with a cheap joke.
Patches the Pirate walks into a bar and asks the bartender: "How much for a beer?" - "No Charge!"
... I'll see myself out.
The OG Prime card before Ashes of Outland hit the game. While White Eyes itself is pretty much motionless and therefore not that impressive art-wise, The Storm Guardian definitely has all it takes to be upgraded!
White Eyes currently sees play in some lists of Reno Shaman, thanks to the synergy with N'Zoth, the Corruptor and Shudderwock, allowing you to shuffle even more 5 mana 10/10s in your deck.
Honourable Mentions
Mayor Noggenfogger - We know his use was fringe at best, but he’s still the mayor of Gadgetzan! Also one of the biggest memes of all time.
What do you think about our nominations for the next Diamond cards? Do you agree with them or do you think there are better candidates? Let us know in the comments below!
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Comments
Is it a certain fact that the diamond cards will be bound to owning cards of their expansion? I think there would be a lot of possibilities for more creative achievements, like owning all neutral Pirate cards for a diamond Patches instead of that bird that doesn't see play.
The bird sees play in quest rogue btu thats a tier 4 deck which is still an improvement comapred to eyars before where was actulyl useless.
Old Gods - Really we have to do C'Thun. Other than that Yogg-Saron, Hope's End is a great second. Honestly if they had the time I'd love to see all Old Gods done. Completing the achievement let you pick one for free and unlocked the rest in the store for a few bucks. You'd still have to have the achievement done but would be a nice offer to let people grab more than one if they wished while still letting those get their reward of their favorite god.
Karahzan- I still am not sure they'd make these for adventures but I certainly wouldn't mind a Medivh, the Guardian diamond.
Gadgetzan - I again would love to see the 3 crime lords done with one free and the rest as purchaseable if desired after achievement is complete. Still maybe too much work. I'd pick Mayor Noggenfogger as my set representative. Wrathion would also be awesome to see despite his lack of usefulness. I just love that art.
Mayor Noggenfogger will always hold a special place in my heart. On the day Gadgetzan launched, within four consecutive packs I opened three legendaries, one of them golden. All of them were Noggenfogger, and none of them saw much play.
The only reason I would play Noggenfogger now is for the "sorry" emote.
Ah, a fellow triple Noggenfogger owner. I didn't get them back-to-back but it didn't hurt any less. Gadgetzan was definitely the expansion of duplicates for me.
You add it to your deck but when you play it has a random border.
It would be cool if they diamonded up all the Old Gods. I think they would go for the standard set one