Whizbang's Workshop's Nods to the Past: Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior Cards

This is the last article in this impromptu retrospective series, where we take a look at Hearthstone's past throught the lens of Whizbang's Workshop, with a look at Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior. This is Part 4 of the series, check out Part 1 (Neutral, Demon Hunter, Death Knight), Part 2 (Druid, Hunter, Mage) and Part 3 (Paladin, Priest, Rogue) when you're done here if you haven't. Now, let's dive in!

Shaman

Shaman is one of 3 classes with two call-back Legendaries, and the only one where both originals are from the same expansion. Both Hagatha the Witch and Shudderwock were introduced in 2018's The Witchwood set, an expansion best known for introducing of the Rush keyword, which has seen heavy use since, and the cards Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane, who were so powerful they had to be rotated a year early.

Hagatha the Witch is the main antagonist of the Witchwood storyline, being responsible for a lot of the stuff happening around the city of Gilneas. She's also the first Hero added to the game after their introduction in Knights of the Frozen Throne, solidifying the new card type as a new staple of the game. She appeared again as Swampqueen Hagatha during the Year of the Dragon, but we'll talk more about the lore on this card in the Warrior section, since there's a card there that's related.

This second version the card has a Battlecry that adds a 5-Mana 5/5 minion to your hand and "teach" it two Shaman Spells, meaning it would cast them as it's own Battlecry. The card in Whizbang's Workshop, Hagatha the Fabled, seems to be a reference to this version while flipping the effect on its head, now drawing two Spells from your deck and transforming them into minions that cast those Spells.

Going back to Shudderwock, he's very likely a Green Dragon that was corrupted by Hagatha into a monstrosity that doesn't even have the tribe anymore. This card was quite a pain to play against on release, since repeating all the battlecries that happened that game took a very long time. The devs had to increase the speeds of its animations and reduce the number of Battlecries (initially to 20, then upped to 30).

You could even play the card infinitely thanks to a combination of Saronite Chain Gang and Grumble, Worldshaker until the former was nerfed to summoning another Chain Gang instead of a copy of itself. In Whizbang's Workshop, the card is represented by the toy-fied Shudderblock, which calls back to the original only by the fact that you repeat Battlecries. Still, that's a potent effect synergizes really well with the original Shudder.

Not done with Shaman yet! We have Baking Soda Volcano, which is a reference to Journey to Un'Goro's Volcano. Finally, there's Incredible Value a card that is a reference to Flamewreathed Faceless a card released in Whispers of the Old Gods that offers great value for the cost, since it was a 7/7 on turn 4. Not to be confused with Boulderfist Ogre, a card that's great stats for the cost.

Warlock

Nemsy Necrofizzle is a very interesting character. She first appeared as an alternate Warlock portrait that could be obtained at Fireside Gatherings, real-life events where people could meet to play Hearthstone. Sadly, those have been discontinued, and the skin made unavailable aside from a free giveaway in May 2020. She also appears in the artworks of Fen Creeper and Bog Creeper, and the full artwork for the hero portrait also has a Creeper in it.

A good number of other Nemsy skins have been released throughout the years, but Game Master Nemsy is the first playable card of the character (barring Mercenaries). She takes the role of game master at some sort of tabletop game, and that's very fitting, seeing as she used to be obtainable at real-life events that saw people get together to play a game. She even has the Hearthstone logo on her GM screen.

Lastly for Warlock, there's Malefic Rook and Wretched Queen, how are likely references to 2016's One Night in Karazhan adventure, where one of the boss battles was a chess game. This boss fight is a recreation of the Chess Event in World of Warcraft, which a well-liked event in the game.

Warrior

Before we get to the main event, let's talk about Botface. This is a mech version of Rotface, a WoW character that first appeared in 2017's Knights of the Frozen Throne. Rotface is a Flesh Beast, a more powerful version of an Abomination, which are undead stiched together from multiple corpses. Rotface in particular is one of two bosses created by Professor Putricide (the other one, Festergut, doesn't have a collectible card).

In Hearthstone, Rotface would give you a random Legendary minion when it survived damage, which has some gruesome implications. Rotface mimics this effect, but with Mini cards to better fit the theme of the expansion. The mech version is also probably better than the original, since it has 3 more health and Taunt, and doesn't need to survive the damge, but both are pretty weak minions.

Now, Dr. Boom. He was a very small boss fight in WoW that got upgraded to major antagonist in Hearthstone. His first appearance was in 2014's Goblin vs Gnomes, Hearthstone's first full-on expansion, as a 7/7 that summons two Boom Bots. Before release, players thought he was a bad card, while his cost-mate, Troggzor the Earthinator, got all the attention and was expected to be busted. The roles ended up reversed, as Boom was a very good card at the time, while Troggzor was middling at best. 

When the character really came into his own was in 2018's Boomsday Project, as Dr. Boom, Mad Genius. Here, he's the leader of Boom Lab, a science center located in The Twisting Nether, where he's developing his Boomsday device, a weapon of mass destruction that never saw use. This Hero card is the first one to not have an Armor value 5, and was the only one for a long time until Rokara, the Valorous and Al'Akir, the Winds of Time were buffed. So far, he's the only hero to start with something other than 5 Armor.

Boom made a reapearance during 2019's Rise of Shadows as Blastmaster Boom, as part of a team consisting of Arch-Villain Rafaam, Madame Lazul, Heistbaron Togwaggle, and the aforementioned Swampqueen Hagatha, as part of the League of E.V.I.L. While recurring characters happened before, this was the first time this was such a big event. Lazul and Rafaam are in the Core set, so the only member not in Standard is Toggwaggle. Maybe in the mini-set?

Rise of Shadows also kicked off the first ever year-long storyline for the game, as well as introducing Lackey, the only keyword in the game so far to receive support for exactly one year (as opposoed to in a single expansion or as an evergreen one). 

Whizbang's Workshop introduces Inventor Boom, the only version of the character to not cost 7. This is kind of a big deal, since the original card was nicknamed "Dr. Seven" due to its statline and cost, so it's weird that the call back doesn't cost 7. Even weirder is that it doesn't summon Boom Bots, something both Blastmaster and the original did. Insteat, that job is given to Fireworker which, to be fair, can be summoned by Inventor.

Finally, there's Lab Patron, which can also be classified under "recurring mechanic". The original Grim Patron was released in 2015's Blackrock Mountain, and led to the creation of Grim Warrior, a deck that specializing and summoning a lot of Patrons and giving them Charge with Warsong Commander, who was massacred for the Patron's crimes in the form of Hearthstone biggest nerf ever: "Your Charge minions have +1 Attack" (she got better). Arena Patron and Gruntled Patron released later and, like the Lab one, didn't hold a candle to the original.

What's your favorite call back from among all the classes? How did you like this series of aticles? Let us know in the comments below, and who knwos? We might do one for the mini-set.