Whizbang's Workshop's Nods to the Past: Neutral, Death Knight, and Demon Hunter Cards

Whizbang's Workshop just released, and we decided to take a look all the stuff the expansion references. Seeing as this is the first set of Hearthstone's 10th year of existence, it is filled to the brim with past characters and mechanics, with each class getting at least one Legendary that represents a character from the game's past and one non-Legendary card that harkens back to the days of old.

There's a lot of ground to cover, so we'll split this into multiple parts. This article will focus on the Neutral, Death Knight, and Demon Hunter cards. Let's get into it!

Neutral

Starting off with the Neutral card, and with the man himself, Splendiferous Whizbang! This character first appeared in 2018, in the Boomsday Project expansion as Whizbang the Wonderful. He allowed you to play the game with one of the deck receipes in the game, chosen at random from a total of 18 (the basic receipes that don't include expansion cards were not included in his pool, and he can't give you Death Knight and Demon Hunter decks). Unfortunately, he didn't see much play once he rotated out, as Standard deck recepies are not great in Wild, to put it mildly. We'll see how this new, more splendiferous version fares.

The other Boomsday Project Legendary card in the Neutral pool is Zilliax Deluxe 3000. The origianl Zilliax was and absolute control beast, often getting rid of a minion on the field while healing you up to 6 life. The people played it in decks with no Mechs, so the Magnetic keyword isn't even what made it so good. That said, the new version might just be the most exciting and unique card they've ever made, with an insane degree of customization that might make it as played as the original, if not more. Hopefully this mechanic bleeds into non-Legendary cards in the future.

The last returning character in Neutral Legendary section is Joymancer Jepetto. This the only character among the 3 to actually originate outside Hearthstone, as Jepetto Joybuzz is a toy vendor in Dalaran that sells a bunch of toys to players, including a train set that can get you kicked out of raids. The character first appeared as a Neutral Legendary in the Rise Shadows expansion in 2019, Hearthstone's 5th anniversary. The old version of the card drew two minions and made them 1/1s, basically Miniaturizing them before that was a thing. The new version calls back to that with an effect that's most obviously used with Mini cards.

Moving on to the non-legendary part of the Neutral pool, there are several Nostalgic cards with the Miniaturize keyword harkening back to keywords that were only part of one expansion:

• Nostalgic Clown for Corrupt from 2020's Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, specifically Carnival Clown.
• Nostalgic Gnome for Honourable Kill from 2021's Fractured in Alterac Valley, specifically Gnome Private.
• Nostalgic Initiate for Spellburst from 2020's Scholomance Academy, specifically Intrepid Initiate.

Huh. Lots of nostalgia for only the past 4 years. Aside from these, there are some other call-backs to old cards, like Giggling Toymaker for Giggling Inventor; Scarab Keychain for Jeweled Scarab and Golden Scarab; Tar Slime for Tar Creeper, Tar Lurker and Tar Lord; and Nesting Golem for Rattlegore. Two of the 3 Crane cards also alude to older characters, with Frog having a similar pose and color to Magic Dart Frog, and Dragon striking the same pose as Alexstrasza.

Death Knight

The new kid on the block gets to play with some old toys that the other characters have had for a while. But, before that, we have the card debut of The Headless Horseman, a character that has appeared in quite a few Hearthstone events and was even a Paladin skin before. The Horseman is generally associated with the Tavern Brawls that would play during Hallow's End, a Hearthstone/WoW event that happens around christmas, and is the boss of the WoW version. This is the first time the character has appearead as a collectible card in Hearthstone.

But back to these toys! During 2017's Kobolds and Catacombs, each class got a Spellstone, a spell that could be upgraded twice by performing certain actions. They ranged from pretty uselsess to extremely powerful, depending on the deck and the card. Death Knight got their own this expansion with the Lesser Spinel Spellstone, and it focuses on the Undead hand-buff archetype that's being pushed this expansion.

Finally, there's Darkthorn Quilter, which is a pretty clear nod to 2020's Augmented Porcupine. Both have 2/4 stats and a similar effect (end of turn vs Deathrattle), and both are dual-tribe. Fun fact: Porcupine was released in Ashes of Outland, the same expansion that introduced Demon Hunter.

Demon Hunter

Another class to be introduced a few years after the game's release, DH actually has the oldest character on the list in terms of when they first appeared. Magtheridon first showed up all the way back in 2003's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, as a boss in the Night Elf campaign. He was seemingly killed off by Illidan Stormrage, but the WoW expansion The Burning Crusade reveals he was locked up in a lair and used to power Illidan's fel orcs, until he's killed by the players.

In Hearthstone, Magtheridon first appeared in the 2020 Ashes of Outland expansion as a Neutral Legendary, with an effect that references his inprisonment in the other games. He was also a boss in the Trail by Felfire single-player adventure, both in his regular form and as a Prime. The Primes were non-collectible Legendary minions that were more powerful versions of their non-Prime forms, and were shuffled into the deck when those versions died. Each class had a Prime Legendary, and Magtheridon, Unreleased is a nod to that, albeit only in art.

The other DH Legendary, Ci'Cigi (like CCG, Cokectible Card Game), is a Hearthstone-original, but her effect is a reference to how Demon Hunter was incredebly powerful on release and their cards had to be nerfed very shortly after. Other than that, DH gets a Spellstone like DK with Lesser Opal Spellstone, as well as a Spirit in Spirit of the Team. Spirits are a cycle of 0-Attack minions that were Stealther for 1 turn, from 2018's Rastakhan's Rumble that all other classes got. Odd that Demon Hunter got one, but not Death Knight, since those minons have all been made into Undead when that Tribe was introduced.

What do you think of all those references to Hearthstone's past? Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below and we'll see you next time with Druid, Hunter, and Mage!