Hearthhead 2015: Hearthstone Cards of the Year

Hearthstone Geposted 31.12.2015 um 10:14 von Skiffington

Druid Nominees

Hunter Nominees

Mage Nominees

Paladin Nominees

Priest Nominees

Rogue Nominees

Shaman Nominees

Warlock Nominees

Warrior Nominees

Neutral Nominees

Constructed Card of the Year Votes

Player

First Selection

Second Selection

Third Selection

- This single card introduced in the game gave combos for all sorts of decks to experiment with. Druid, Freeze Mage, Malylock, and the pre-nerf Patron (and post-nerf too!) all have a way to do ridiculous turns thanks to this legendary. I even did a crazy turn recently against Trump's secret Paladin in the Starladder tournament.

- Paladin has always felt like they missed out on secrets when was introduced, as 1-mana secrets just didn't have enough value when drawn and played from the hand. Fortunately, Mysterious Challenger lets us put at most 5 secrets in play at once, along with a 6/6 body as well! With effectively 11-mana worth of stats on a single card, it's no wonder that Secret Paladin decklists have started being popular once players realized its potential.

- Man have people underrated his card! Not only is it a 2/2 , and that the fact that you get 1 of 3 choices, we also figured out that class cards were 400% more likely to be discovered. , , and even are insane 1-drop Warlock class cards. And also the chance to get against weapon classes and to destroy that 1 , this flexible card really does it all.

- I don't think this comes as a surprise to anyone. This card singlehandely changed the game of Hearthstone by opening up a whole new world of possibilities with the help of the power of Ragnaros. Historically, in trading card games, cost reduction cards have been the most powerful ones, Black Lotus in Magic; the Gathering and in Hearthstone just to name a few. Thaurissan pushes this to a whole new level with the possibility to save you nine mana by just the one reduction you're granted for playing him, don't get me started on what happens when he stays in play for multiple turns. This is not even to mention that Hearthstone is a game that is a game with a mana-cap of 10, and every single card is carefully designed with this in mind. Emperor Thaurissan breaks this rule in half and allows you to play combos that were never intended to exist. One of the reasons got nerfed (originally it cost 4 mana) were because Handlock's finisher of Leeroy + + . 20 damage for 10 is insanely powerful. With Emperor Thaurissan effect on a single one of these cards and the combo is available again.

You may think that this is a bad example to demonstrate his power because it's definitely not what he's been used to do the most (Grim Patron, Druid Combo, Malygos Warlock) and this is exactly why he is so insanely strong, allowing something that has been banned from the game is one of the least powerful things Emperor allows. This is a clear choice for me as the most impactful card of 2015.

Sidenote; This is also the reason why is not on my list. The card dominated the meta for months, but it would not have been able to do this without the help of Emperor. Where Emperor would have been very impactful even without his Patron-friends.

- Most ladder players hate this guy, but there is no denying that this card gave Paladin the final push it needed to be a very real contender for the best class in the game. Seeing how pre-GVG it was considered the worst class by quite a bit this says a lot about Mysterious Challenger. When TGT came out a lot of people (including me) just ditched this card as bad because all Paladin Secrets suck. But in hindsight it is really obvious how strong this is. Considering a 6/6 body is already worth more than 5 mana, lets say 5.5 mana exactly, getting cards worth for up to 5 mana more, and also making your threat-heavy by removing multiple cards that you didn't want to draw in the late-game anyway probably puts its "reasonable" mana cost at something like 13 mana... Paladin had a good year and I think Mysterious Challenger can take the most credit for this.

- Do you remember the days when you hoped that your opponent didn't have ? Me neither. Not only did Darnassus Aspirant increase the consistency of Druid by a lot but also gave Druid the best possible tool to fight the decks it was weakest against. For those of you that need a reminder Druid struggled a lot against decks like Zoo, Hunter and other decks that developed the board very quickly while the Druid set up with Wild Growths and slow cards like . This was such a powerful strategy because Druid lack a way to come back in a game where the Druid player is behind, aside from , which is not even that powerful compared to what other classes have. Darnassus fixes this problem perfectly not only by letting you cast your high impact-minions earlier, but the 2/3 body is very good at dealing with the early minions that these decks play. As a Hunter expert I think that card alone turned the Hunter vs. Druid matchup from highly favorable for the Hunter to slightly unfavored, and that is huge when you're considering a single card did this.

Honorary Mentions

- Flamewaker basicly put Tempo Mage on the map. What the deck lacked was a powerful 3-drop with your best option prior to Flamewaker were . The only reason it's not is in top three is because it wasn't quite enough to make the deck top tier as the other cards on the list did but I would feel bad not mentioning it at all since it had a lot of impact on this year.

- Same thing as Flamewaker basically. A class with no good three drop got access to a very powerful one and it is now a staple in almost every single Warlock-deck, especially those of the aggressive type. Warlock would probably not have any chance to compete in the Paladin-heavy meta we have right now if this card didn't exist.

- The tyrant of 2015 which has single handedly caused Blizzard to forcefully banish to the shadow realm. No single deck has been this oppressive since Huntertaker and Miracle Rogue. Easily the most impactful card of 2015.

- He is the glue that allows midrange, combo, and control decks to gain legitimacy in their end game. Decks that lose emperor become significantly weaker, such as pre-need Patron Warrior and Malylock. While players have started weening off the need for emperor in decks (Druid doesn't always run it these days), the overall power level of decks increased greatly thanks to this card.

- A huge sleeper for TGT ends up getting full reins of the meta after the Patron nerf. Little did people realize that without everyone getting in here, the Paladins have been freed to come forth and boy did they elect quite the leader In his steed. It has defined the meta for a solid 2 months and with LoE just finishing up, it seems MC paladin is here to stay on top for a while. Any card that can singlehandedly give cards like a, and major significance is a 10/9 power level in my book.

I think these are the best cards of 2015 as far as being useful and strong in many decks.

A lot of notable cards like Mysterious Challenger, Flamewaker, and Emperor Tharassian are only strong in a single relevant meta deck so I did not value them as highly. Dark Peddler and didn't make my list, but are close to the top 3 and from a design standpoint are way more fun than the cards I selected, as well as Reno Jackson. The League of Explorers was overall my favorite set as far as playing them, but still not really the set for powerhouse cards. But so many fairly strong cards that work in a fair number of decks.

We couldn't not put Grim Patron as our number one pick. Even if what Firebat says is correct, it absolutely dominated the meta for most of the year and took the ladder by storm. Until the nerf, we never thought we'd see a day when it didn't sit atop the tier list. Thaurrisan, as the card which enabled it and many of the other combo decks out there comes in a close second with Mysterious Challenger a relatively distant third. It's unknown how long our secretive friend will remain untouched (it could be forever), but his history is still relatively brief with much more to come.

Arena Card of the Year

- Because it changed the Arena meta, becoming the best neutral common in the game.

- Because people used it a ton, and Paladin users rose, so you had to deal with it a lot (it's not that great actually).

- Because it single handedly lifted Warlock from "bad" to "average."

Kraken is an auto include as a large, impactful, common minion that can swing board control wildly. As ADWCTA said, Imp Gang Boss basically made Warlock relevant, but we went with Kvaldir as our final choice as the early days of The Grand Tournament were absolutely jam packed full of those activations that continually grew him turn after turn.

Final ResultsConstructed Card of the Year

Arena Card of the Year

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