We're closing in on the end of the Year of the Dragon and with that comes a fresh set of rotations. We're going to see the loss of The Witchwood, The Boomsday Project, and Rastakhan's Rumble from Standard as they make room for the new expansions of 2020 and with that comes the loss of some of our favourite cards.
In this mini-series, we're looking back at the cards we're going to miss the most once the set rotation hits and showcase a deck that makes use of that card. Before we get to the cards well miss the most though, a quick recap of The Witchwood.
- The Witchwood added the Echo and Rush keywords to the game.
- Odd & Even card mechanics were introduced though they were sent to the Hall of Fame at the start of the Year of the Dragon.
- Brought the "Worgen mechanic" that gave way to cards that swapped their Attack and Health in-hand as they transformed between Human and Worgen each turn.
- Monster Hunt - A Dungeon Run-style mode which gave us four interesting heroes to play with.
And now, on with the show!
Shudderwock
Shudderwock has been one of my favourite cards since it was released. Like many cards before it, its a build-around card that you can go crazy with - replicating Battlecries means you can do anything from using it as a finisher with a carefully selected set of Battlecries, to throwing in a pile of the best Battlecries you have and placing it at the top end, to sliding it in to an existing archetype that happens to use a fair amount of Battlecries, like Galakrond or Jade.
Even before the admittedly annoying Saronite Chain Gang combo was removed in Standard, I loved to use him in silly unique ways. It's only gotten more fun since it was released, and I'll be sad to see it go. Wild is a hostile place for silly jank, but luckily he works well there as part of some truly degenerate combos, so I'm sure I'll find it in me to mess around there too.
Plus, I just like his flavour. I love a good Lewis Carroll reference.
Town Crier
Although he's a very simple card, Town Crier has been able to help carry warrior for the entirety of the year. I don't think I have built a single warrior deck without putting in two copies of Town Crier at first. At first glance, the card looks underwhelming, but if my time playing Hearthstone has taught me one thing, a cheap vanilla minion that draws a card is almost always playable, if not incredibly strong. He comes out early, establishes board control, and then helps you either keep it or reclaim it later on with the rush minion he's drawn. There isn't much else to say about Town Crier honestly, it's simple, it's elegant, it's strong, and it made deck building a whole lot easier when you only had to put in 28 other cards.
Due to the nature of the card, there isn't really a great way to showcase his strength, as despite how strong he is, he gets overshadowed by cards that seemingly have more impact on than him. That being said, here's a list that features him, a streamlined Galakrond Warrior. The gameplan of the deck is simple, get the board early with Town Crier or Eternium Rover, Invoke Galakrond to control the board as well as going face if the opponent is not pressuring you enough, and finally close out the game with Galakrond, the Unbreakable.
Tess Greymane & Blink Fox
It was love at first sight. I loved the OG Steal Priest back in the day and the crazy games that came with it. Ever since the introduction of the Burgle package for Rogue, it became my new favourite. Games are always different and you have to make do with what you get. I guess that is the Arena player in me.
Tess Greymane was the perfect card to make the archetype come together. You no longer had to be so reserved with the random cards you got, now you had a real late-game strategy. Sometimes playing the cards you got to prepare Tess in a specific way was your strategy and sometimes you had to not play a great removal like Hex or AOE like Brawl just so you wouldn't screw yourself in the long run. And sometimes you did just that and Tess combined with Shadowsteps gave you three Brawls and then some. It was a puzzle game on its own and I loved it.
Another great card that is one of the pillars of any Burgle Rogue deck which is leaving Standard is Blink Fox. Cute little rascal that provides a decent body to fight off aggro in the early game while advancing your overall strategy without losing any tempo. What more can you ask for? Please don't go! :(
This is the deck I have been running for most of the year.
With introduction of Bazaar Burglary, the Burgle Rogue got another "win condition", or rather a consistent removal tool, which helps such a deck a lot since you want to run as many card generators as possible - no need to "waste" card slots on your own removals. This helps with playing Burgle cards early not be such a hindrance, so you can plan your Tess play during midgame and often times being able to play her on curve with great success.
Some late additions with Descent of Dragons like Dragon's Hoard or Flik Skyshiv. Dragon's Hoard especially is great in this deck, it provides access to a really powerful pool of minions that you can then replay later with Tess. If you like your games to be unique and fun, this is a deck for you!
Thanks to ShadowsOfSense, Echo, and Sinti for sharing the cards they'll miss from The Witchwood once it leaves the Standard format.
Which cards from The Witchwood are you going to miss? Tell us about them in the comments below!
If you want to see other cards we're going to miss once the Year of the Dragon ends at the standard rotation takes place, here you go!
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 23 - Day 13 [Finished]](the-great-dark-beyond-day-13.webp)
Comments
As much as i liked shudderwock, Tess decks were the best to play on the fun aspect
I am going to force myself to only choose one card that I will miss the most, and then put some "honorable mentions":
I'm honestly surprised to find myself choosing this one because of all the frustration this card has caused me during it's time in standard. But that just goes to show how versatile this card is, and how many decks it showed up in. As a Hunter main, losing Lifedrinker is going to hurt. Beast synergy, face damage and healing in a class with so little. Any Hunter deck I've built for the past 2 years that needed something in the 4 slot, had this put in.
Honorable mentions:
Houndmaster Shaw, Rat Trap, Shudderwock
Also, just want to have one last good laugh about Duskfallen Aviana ever being printed.
Zilliax will be missed by the most. It's a really well designed Legendary.
I will miss also:
- Shirvallah and the otk paly
- Khangors army and them mech shenanigans (annoyo module and the mech drake)
- Lord Godfrey and Huntmaster Shaw
- burglar rogue and the spectral cutlass
- amani bear
- oondasta and the undertaker
- darius and the rush warrior
- Grisly bear and the fun against aggro
- dr. Boom and Hagatha, dem heroes - so fun to play with, so annoying to play against
- ofc the jaws that bite and the claws that catch wont be easily forgotten
- omega defender and omega assembly
- and so many more that i cant think of right now.
Cards I'll miss:
Rat Trap: I hit legend for the first time with secret highlander Hunter shortly after the release of Uldum. Rat Trap is such an excellent secret to have in the mix since its mechanics are so different from the other traps. It won several games for me, either through its triggering or my opponents being forced to play around it.
Spectral Cutlass: I detested infinite lifesteal Kingsbane rogue, and was happy when that got nerfed. This was a fun alternative that felt fair. The burgle cards weren't always that strong, and sometimes you got weird or expensive cards that you'd have to make a decision on to keep your durability up.
Mossy Horror: This card isn't seeing as much play, but it was a fun control card to throw in a deck. It also shined in Arena more than one would expect. Again, just a very fair card, but oh so satisfying when played against the right board.
I'm going to miss Emeriss the most. I hit legend with Dragon Hunter during the first season of the Witchwood with Emeriss at my top end, it was one of my favorite moments in all my years playing Hearthstone.
Shudderwock can burn in Wild Hell for all eternity.
Zilliax will be missed, such a nice alround card.
Aww.. will I have to change my name?
Or just time to go really wild?
Shudderwock needs a Raza-style nerf before going to wild, or a new type of tech card to prevent infinite Shudderwock.
Dirty Rat alone is not a good bet.
Here's an unusual one to mention: Arcane Dynamo. I used it a little on Big Spell Mage back in the day, but it has come up again in the past six months for Rez Priest. Need a third Mass Rez or Plague of Death for later? Against warlocks stacking multiple N'zoth or Death Knight hero card, druids running the new Ysera or their 6/8 reborn taunt, or other decks that can just continue to pile big minions, It's worth the awkward 3/4, especially if you're already playing the quest.
RIP Mr Wock, I'll never forget you giving me my first Legend finish in standard <3
Old Favourite? SN1P-SN4P & Zilliax
New Favourite? Zephrys the Great for sure. And many more, but I still don't have a preferences.
I'll miss Arcane Keysmith, and kinda sad I never got to find a way to abuse Toki, Time-Tinker. Also with the end of Year of the Dragon, we'll also lose Boomsday and Rakistan Rumble, RIP the short lived Hand Mage, and never really got much value out of Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk, nor much from Hex Lord Malacrass. Well here's hoping we can make Wild a bit wilder.
That one time I got two Ragnaros out for lethal was glorious though...
Aye, I managed it once, but it just seems whenever Mage does well, people rally the Troops, grab their pitchforks and torches, and cry for nerfs until Blizzard does it. As if Mage isn't supposed to be viable ever. Not saying it hasn't been, but when it does well for more than a month just seem to go down hill from there.
Just about all control decks get hate from aggro players. Just the nature of the game. Unfortunately, there's so many good ways to fill a board right now that it's hard to get anywhere with a pure control strategy. We'll have to see how things change with the next rotation.
You should see the cries from some circles of Hearthstone when Priest gets a good deck.
Actually, I'm getting them now from Hunters with Rez Priest thwarting their various decks.
What do you think I play once Mage gets Nerfed? xD
I'm still sad I could never build a deck good enough to include Countess Ashmore. Seems like she would have been good in control decks with Zilliax but sometimes it counted Zilliax as the rush minion instead of the lifesteal and you only got one or two draws instead of two or three
I think its more about the fact that you're playing a 7 mana card that does nothing to reduce tempo on board.
If Countess Ashmore draws a playable taunt, or playable and decent rush-lifesteal minion, then perhaps there's some hope for the poor dragoness. At around turn 6-above are turns where playing cards that doesn't affect board tempo is generally considered to be bad.
The problem was not connected to the effect by itself (I don't understand what you're trying to say: if a single minion has more than one keyword, Countess Ashmore will always draw it because of the one no other unit in your deck has), but rather to the cost of the card: with 7 mana there are a quite a lot of better thing you can do. In other words: the card is (was and will always be) slow.
I understand your sadness since I own a copy myself and I've experienced the same deck building frustration, but in a meta where a 7 drop gives you an Arcanite Reaper and draws you 4 0-costed cards there isn't much place you our beloved Countess...
Hm, I didn't actually know the interaction worked that way, so that was just a misinterpretation on my part. I always remember trying to compare her to The Curator, but I suppose the difference in playability comes from Curator having Taunt while Countess is just purely a tempo loss.