Whizbang's Workshop's Nods to the Past: Paladin, Priest, and Rogue Cards

We're back with our series of aricles taking a look at past references in Whizbang's Workshop! Today we're looking at Paladin, Priest, and Rogue. This is the third article in the series, make sure to also check out Part 1 (Neutral, Demon Hunter, Death Knight) and Part 2 (Druid, Hunter, Mage). Without further ado, let's get into it!

Paladin

Paladin has probably the fewest references from among all the classes. The only real one is Toy Captain Tarim, which we'll get to in a second. One could make an argument for Flash Sale being a reference to Annoy-o-Tron, a card that first appeared in 2014's Goblin vs Gnomes, but there's been quite a few cards throught the years that either referenced or summoed the silly little guy, a bunch of them for Paladin, so we're filing this under "recurring mechanic".

Now, Tarim. He's a Tol'vir, a species best described as feline-centaurs (except the head is also cat-like) that were created by the Titans a loooong time ago in Azeroth's history. Titan creations were made of either stone or metal, with the Tol'vir being the former, until they succumbed to the Curse of Flesh, turning them into "normal" organic beings.

Tol'Vir have been in Hearthstone since the beggining, with one appearing in the art of Ancient Watcher, but they didn't have any cards until the 2015's League of Explorers introduced Obsidian Destroyer into the game.

Sunkeeper Tarim is a Tol'vir original to Hearthstone, making his debut in 2017's Journey to Un'goro, the first ever set to include two Legendary cards per expansion, and the first set to have Legedary spells. He was a 6-mana 3/7 with Taunt that set the stats of all minions to 3, and saw quite a bit of play, since it let you trade equally with your oppoent's board while being able to tank 3 hits due to his Health.

The new version is a toy likely created by Whizbang. He has the same statline, and his effect still modifies the stats of minions, though now it sets them to the same as himself. The base version lets you buff one of your small minions, while the Miniaturizes version is great for getting rid of big threats. Rally neat design!

Priest

Priest's main call-back card is Raza the Resealed. Raza is an Ethereal, astral beings that reside in The Twisting Nether, such as Arch-Thief Rafaam, Nexus-Champion Saraad, and Zerek, Master Cloner. They don't really have a body, instead using pieces of clothing to aproximate it. Raza decides to channel his inner metal-head and replace the clothing with glowing-red chains.

He first appeared in 2016's Mean Streets of Gagetzan. A big gimmick of this expansion was splitting the then-nine classes into 3 gangs, each also getting a number of tri-class cards. Raza the Chained was part of the Kabal, the gang consisting of Priest, Mage and Warlock. They specialized in potion-making and their legendaries each having a highlander effect, with Raza's being probably the most powerful once Shadowreaper Anduin was released the following year.

Interesting fact about the Kabal: It's theorized they were supposed to use a secondary resource. This can be seen in a number of their cards having Red Mana in their art, the trailer for the expansion featuring it in pretty high quantities, and the existence of the card Red Mana Wyrm. This was, of course, dropped, giving the Kabal the unifying theme of potions and highlander cards. The idea of a secondary resource would return for Death Knight and their Corpses.

The other reference Priest has this expansion is Purifying Power, which is a call-back to Unicorn Priest. There was a time in the game's history where Priest was in a very bad spot, but then-game director Ben Brode promissed there was a good deck for the class that players just didn't find, the so-called Unicorn Priest. The unicorn in the card's art is evidence enough of it, but the effect and name are also somewhat similar to that of Purify, which was released around the time of Unicorn Priest.

Rogue

Sonya Shadowdancer, introduced in 2017's Kobolds & Catacombs, is... one of the characters of all times. Yeah, this is a Hearthstone-original with not much backstory other than being a Rogue that explores kobold-infected catacombs. Her effect gave you 1/1 copies of minions that died, which allowed the class to get up to some nasty shennanigans. Sonya Waterdancer flips this effect on it's head, instead giving you 0-Cost copies of 1-Cost cards you play. Busted effect with Mana Wraith.

Another reference can be found in the location The Crystal Cove. This is a call-back to The Caverns Below and it's reward, Crystal Core, the Rogue Quest from Journey to Un'goro. These Quests were the first Legendary spells introduced in the game, and the Quest mechanic would return several times afterwards. Most players saw this card and wrote it off as bad, but it's probably the strongest Quest from the expansion, having been nerfed twice. The Cove Location has a similar effect to the Core Spell, but it only affects one minion and it seems to turn it into the nerfed version.

Finally for Rogue, there's Thistle Tea Set. This references Thistle Tea from 2016's Whispers of the Old Gods, which drew a card and duplicated it twice for two mana. This was quite an expensive effect and didn't see much play, with Mimic Pod coming out a year later and giving you 2/3rds of the value for half of the cost when it came out, and 1/3rd of the cost after a later buff. Now the Set has an arguably more powerful effect for Thief Rogue. Talk about power creep.

Which of these references do you remember most fondly? Any event or character that you wish was in this set? Let us know in the comments below and we'll see you next time with the conclusion of this series, when we take a look at Shaman, Warlock and Warrior.