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Hearthstone’s newest expansion – The Boomsday Project – went live earlier this week and that’s the perfect time for us to dive and give each class a quick rundown on what new tools they’ve got at their disposal.
While not a strictly new inclusion, the almost complete lack of mech cards in standard play before this expansion makes their abundance in the set feel like a whole new sub-type. To complement this massive influx is a new keyword; Magnetic. Magnetic minions can be played on the board on their own, or can be more or less absorbed by a friendly mech – with their stats and abilities added to the card already on the board.
This can allow for some incredibly strong minions to be built quite quickly – and can also allow for surprising amounts of burst damage as minions can skip their initial idle turn by simply piggybacking on a friendly Mech. The risk of course in taking that path, is that a minion you’ve built over several turns can get silenced – leaving you very thin on resources.
The other mechanic introduced this expansion is omega; cards that play like ordinary minions on their own, but gain incredible stat boosts or abilities when played with ten mana.
So, how did each class fare this time around?
Let’s jump in; looking at Druid, Hunter, Mage and Paladin.
A lot of people feel Druid cleaned up this set, and it’s not hard to see why.
With a healthy mix of specific card draw (Juicy Psychmelon), minion cost reduction (Dreampetal Florist) and board copying (Gloop Sprayer) – a lot of people have picked Floop/Malygos/Starfire combos to be the king of the hill this season.
But I’m not as convinced. While Druid does have superb survivability, the sheer amount of tempo you freely give away to set up combos like that seems incredulous.
Not great tempo, but it sets up the swing Druids are known for.
The strongest Druid decks I’ve seen so far have made good use of the newfound Treant synergy; combining cards like Landscaping and Mulchmuncher with some tools from The Witchwood and even forgotten classics like Soul of the Forest and Cenarius to build boards that prove nearly impossible to remove.
Must-craft card: Mulchmuncher (10 mana, 8/8 with Rush: Costs 1 less for each friendly Treat that’s died this game).
Hunter hasn’t been spoken of as a top Hearthstone class for a while, but I feel its had many of the strongest tools in both Kobolds & Catacombs and The Witchwood.
They’ve certainly got the greatest synergy with the Goblin Bomb – arguably the trademark minion of this set – but at 0/2, Goblin Bombs are a lot of work for a cheap minion you’re playing for its Deathrattle.
Obviously, Magnetic means you can add all sorts of stats to get them trading, but building a deck around that strategy does mean you sacrifice a lot of the flexibility that keyword is supposed to provide.
It’s not all bad news, Hunter did get some strong cards to complement already existing aggressive archetypes, with Cybertech Chip in particular a great tool to stop you from running out of steam in the midgame.
Must-craft card: Cybertech Chip (2 mana spell: Give your minions ‘Deathrattle: Add a random Mech to your hand).
We’ve been building towards a minion Mage archetype and it looks like we’ve finally got the tools to turn this into a legitimate deck.
Synergising well with Archmage Arugal and Book of Specters from the previous set, Mage players can now burn through their deck even quicker with new legendary Stargazer Luna and – thanks to legendary spell Luna’s Pocket Galaxy – flood the board with minions that cost just 1.
It still feels like Mage has more random chance cards in their kit than most other classes but, with much quicker play now an option to the class, the risk is now worth taking.
The real winners are probably Mage opponents, who have to suffer the mind-numbing experience of playing against freeze decks less and less.
Must-craft card: Luna’s Pocket Galaxy (7 mana spell: Change the cost of all minions in your deck to 1).
Despite getting one of the weaker legendary minions of the set, Paladin is primed to continue its run as one of the top classes in the game at the moment thanks to some very strong Magnetic cards.
Glow-Tron seems decidedly average at 1/3, but the plethora of minions that can be stacked onto that make it a dangerous early drop. Mechano-Egg seems incredibly awkward at 0/5 for five mana but, once again, with Magnetic synergy it can become a huge threat before you even consider the Deathrattle.
Then, there’s Annoy-o-Module.
Annoy-o-Module might be one of the best 4-drops this set.
In classic Paladin fashion, it’s the small minions that make the difference in their decks. It’s still my class of choice for ranked play right now.
Must-craft card: Annoy-o-Module (4 mana, 2/4: Magnetic, Divine Shield, Taunt)
There’s your run down of four of the game’s nine classes. Check back tomorrow, where we’ll have run through Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and Warrior.