Following Patch 20.2's addition of Diamond Ragnaros the Firelord for 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 very first few sets of Hearthstone, which were released before the Hearthstone Zodiac and rotations became a thing. Below, you'll see suggestions from Curse of Naxxramas, Goblin vs Gnomes, Blackrock Mountain, The Grand Tournament and League of Explorers.
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.
Curse of Naxxramas
The founder of the Cult of the Damned, one of the principal agents of The Lich King, responsible for spreading the plague across Lordaeron, and leader of the floating necropolis of Naxxramas. That's right, we're talking about Kel'Thu-freaking-zad!
This is such an important character in the World of Warcraft universe, but he's also the centerpiece of Hearthstone's first adventure. While the card is not as strong as it used to be back in the day, Kel'Thuzad's voice lines in his adventure are memorable, as well as his Mr. Bigglesworth's Easter egg. We'd be surprised if KT wouldn't be considered for this cosmetic upgrade!
While Kel'Thuzad is a main character of the adventure and Loatheb is one of the most played Legendaries in Wild, the idea of making both Stalagg and Feugen Diamond really tickles my imagination.
In fact, not only they do see some play in fringe decks like Deathrattle Demon Hunter and Deathrattle Hunter, but they’d also spawn a Diamond Thaddius, which has incredible entry line and entry music animation; Seeing him flexing his giant muscles while he enters the field would be such a stunning visual!
Goblins vs Gnomes
If we were to pick just one Legendary card from this set, there is no way that said card wouldn't be Dr. Boom. Back in the day he was such a powerful tool that playing it on turn 7 was one of the most broken moves in the entire game. Notably, he was also one of the very first few memes in Hearthstone, gaining the nickname of “Dr. 7” and becoming a symbol for the game.
Boom is not that important of a character in World of Warcraft, but his impact in Hearthstone, especially in the community, was so big that Team 5 even tributed him an entire expansion (The Boomsday Project) with a new playable hero card, Dr. Boom, Mad Genius. His legacy doesn't stop there though because we would late see him during Year of the Phoenix via Blastmaster Boom, bringing forth the Bomb Warrior mechanic.
All in all, he is definitely one of the Legendaries that deserves this upgrade the most.
Pretty much the only class Legendary from Goblins vs Gnomes that still sees play today. Even though he has nothing at all to do with the expansion’s theme, which is something that could be said about many GvG cards, Mal'Ganis represents such a unique unit:
- First of all, Immune is one of the least used keywords in the game, and for a reason;
- Secondly, he has one of the coolest Golden animations ever, despite being printed over 7 years ago;
- Finally, his entry line “I am Mal'Ganis, I am eternal!” is often mistaken by him saying that he’s a turtle, which makes no sense but has generated quite the giggles over the time.
So yeah, give us a Diamond card for CubeLock.
Blackrock Mountain
If Kel'Thuzad is Naxxramas' main character, then Emperor Thaurissan has to be the most relevant one from Blackrock Mountain. One of the first (if not the first) combo enablers to be printed in the game, he's been part of many top tier decks since his release in April 2015, providing a key component of decks like Freeze Mage and Patron Warrior.
Even though today's Wild meta is not very kind to Combo and Control decks, Thaurissan still pops up here and there, especially in Linecracker Druid and Renolock.
In the end, we think that his Thor-esque pose would look awesomely good in a Diamond frame!
Honourable Mentions
Nefarian - Deathwing's eldest son has a different entry line based on the class he's played against. His effect is not that great anymore, but his magnificent clash with Ragnaros the Firelord deserves respect and should never be forgotten.
Majordomo Executus - If you're foolish brave to include Domo in your deck, then you deserve doing it with all the swag.
The Grand Tournament
Ahhh, what a rough and forgettable set to choose a Legendary from. To be completely fair, we could've just skipped it and almost nobody would've noticed it, but we are perfectionists, so here we are.
Justicar Trueheart was the upgraded Hero Power enabler before Baku the Mooneater was a thing. Mainly good in Control Warrior thanks to Tank Up!, this is one of the very few cards from The Grand Tournament that saw actual competitive play and thus we believe deserves to get the Diamond treatment.
Not an insane Legendary, currently doesn't see play in any deck, and is restrained by Inspire - one of the worst keywords ever printed (at least they adjusted the aim with Phase Stalker and Dragonbane); nonetheless, everyone who's ever played Confessor Paletress can guarantee you that she's a lot of fun.
Even though you'll rarely get something useful out of her effect, the suspense her animation creates and the potential memes you can achieve make this card a very interesting deckbuilding choice, especially when combined with Raza the Chained.
For this reason and for the fact that she's one of Dane's favorite Legendaries (together with the meme-tastic Sneed's Old Shredder), we think you should definitely give her more credit.
Honourable Mentions
Bolf Ramshield - Obligatory Bolf Ramshield guy meme. That's it. Thank God no-duplicate protection is a thing.
League of Explorers
The OG Highlander card and one of the most epic effects and entry line in the entire game. Reno Jackson is such an iconic character for Hearthstone that you can think about very few better targets for the Diamond treatment.
Back in the day, this unit was singlehandedly able to keep aggro in check; with the time, Team 5 printed more and more support for Highlander builds (Kazakus, Zephrys the Great and so on), but Reno Jackson doesn't fail to make the cut even in today's meta and he's as impactful as always.
Sure, if you're playing aggro, facing a turn 6 Diamond Reno is going to be even more triggering, but hey: blame the game, not the player!
Honourable Mentions
Explorers - not only Reno Jackson, but Elise Starseeker, Brann Bronzebeard and Sir Finley Mrrgglton all deserve a spot in our collections (and hearts). For real: League of Explorers was such a good adventure.
Arch-Thief Rafaam - Reno is the good guys' boss, but how could you forget about RAFAAAAAAM, THE SUPREME ARCHAEOLOGIIIIIST. Here, take a minute of your life and admire this masterpiece:
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!
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 23 - Day 13 [Finished]](the-great-dark-beyond-day-13.webp)
Comments
I know Kel’thuzad is iconic and everything, but he kind of sucks as a card. Diamond Loatheb would be better in my opinion because he still sees consistent play, and I would want to flaunt any diamond cards I own you know? (Not that I have any...)
Diamond cards haven't grown on me.
Still super ugly imo
Diamond Deathwing would be my pick for another classic if they'd ever make more. The golden animation is one of the most beautiful in game and he looks so menacing and threatening, especially compared to Deathwing the Destroyer. The art and pose itself would translate great imo to a diamond card, with him really sticking out and shooting flames all over.
I don't know if I see them doing Adventures as these diamonds are tied to Collecting. Maybe they can put them as Heroic achievement in addition to the cardback?
For Main sets:
GvG: Dr. Boom. Definitely a must.
TGT: I agree with Justicar Trueheart. However to be different I want Icehowl! Would look awesome.
If they do adventures then I want Arch-Thief Rafaam and Kel'Thuzad and Emperor Thaurissan
The most abused cards should get priority.
All glory to you, my Emperor.
If Confessor Paletress was Diamond, would she not have to create diamond legendaries?
I'd love a diamond Lorewalker Cho
Good point! Likely a reason why she or any other random X generator won’t be Diamond.
Stalagg and Fuegen could still be potential candidates seeing as they make a specific minion when their deathrattles both have gone off.
Elise the trailblazer shuffles a diamond map of the DIAMOND monkey that gives you a deck of DIAMOND legendaries.
But seriously I haven't spend real money on this game since rastalhans rumble but if diamond gonk the raptor came out today I would open my wallet.
Tank up is toxic and should be deleted from the game. Never have I hated a deck more that odd warrior and that hero power will forever be associated with that polarising piece of crap
Hero power rope pass :) such a smoothbrain deck Shower me hate lovelies <3
Took a minute to admire that Rafaam masterpiece. Totally worth it 10/10
It's a Cho show after all!
A cool feature of golden cards is that they generate more golden cards. Obviously this won't translate over to diamond cards since diamond copies won't exist, except maybe in limited cases like Thaddius or Boom Bots. So I suspect they'll skip some of the obvious choices to avoid the issue (ain't nobody got time to get assets ready for Kel'Thuzad to diamond-ify all minions, or Nefarian to diamond-ify all spells), although it would mean skipping a lot of the games most iconic cards.
Although it's an awkward solution, I think it is best overall if they bite the bullet right away and make it so diamond cards generate golden copies (they already count as golden themselves for the purposes of getting golden coins in an all-golden deck). Assuming they do this, I would personally like them to choose based on which cards best represent the themes/story of the expansions, rather than basing it on power. So I'd say:
All 5 LoE legs deserve diamond treatment, but how could you possibly distribute those? Achievement points is one possible way. I think all of EVIL and LoE will inevitably need to be diamond. Perhaps Lazul is still a bit weak and in need of some lore love, but the rest... Hearthstone built them up as very important characters and i'm certain that in time they shall all become pillars of HS-spcific lore deserving of diamondification.
I guess they can aim to cover the Explorers and EVIL members incrementally since many of them are main characters in their own sets. If they are happy to make diamond hero cards, then all of Boom, Togwaggle, Hagatha, Elise and Reno can easily be covered without overlapping with other League members. For the 4 remaining members, there are 3 expansions to choose from (LoE, RoS and SoU), so it only requires 1 double somewhere.
If there is a double in LoE, the achievement points would make sense since collecting the whole set is pretty trivial. That or they add an achievement for the respective card, e.g. play all 3 of Rafaam's treasures to unlock his diamond version.
They already do go gold with evolve cards