Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Published , by Ozzie Mejia
A new Standard year is about to begin in Hearthstone. Along with it comes the game's latest expansion. Hearthstone: Festival of Legends welcomes in 145 cards across all 11 of the game's classes. These include some new keywords, mechanics, and interesting strategies. That's especially true when combined with the latest Core set, which has sprinkled in some returning keywords.
As Festival of Legends goes live, we're taking a look at ten new decks from Hearthstone's most recognizable pros and streamers. We recently played against some of these decks ourselves during the recent Hearthstone Theorycrafting Livestream. Even more than usual, we were crushed like insects by many of them, so we've certainly learned a lot, including which of the new cards are likely to get nerfed early on. Let's sit down and take a look at which decks players should consider using for this first day of the Year of the Wolf.
By the end of the Theorycrafting session, nearly everyone had an iteration of this deck. The other pieces don't matter, as long as they get you to Turn 7, which isn't always a guarantee. Having said that, this feels like a combo that will be nerfed to oblivion within a few weeks.
Here's how it works. Tony, King of Piracy will swap out both players' decks, so long as he stays alive on the board. If you have the opposing player's deck, play The Fires of Zin-Azshari. At worst, it will fill your deck with minions that cost at least (5) for just 5 Mana. Here's where it gets filthy. If Tony dies, the decks are swapped back. At that point, play Steam Cleaner and suddenly, your opponent's deck is totally destroyed because it's filled with cards that he didn't start the game with.
As Thijs discovered, this strategy tends to be vulnerable to aggro decks. However, those playing against any kind of control deck or any deck with a drawn out win condition can end their hopes and dreams with this combo, which can start with that Tony/Fires combo at Turn 7. It's absolutely disgusting, but it feels immensely satisfying to pull off. Speaking of disgusting strategies that are fun to pull off...
This is another potential nerf candidate, though it admittedly misses more than it hits. Still, when it hits, it's a potential killer deck. Here's how this deck works. Amorphous Slime can hold Thaddius, Monstrosity. Once the Slime dies and Thaddius is on the board, players will get some discounted cards. The key to victory here is to somehow play The Jailer to activate its Immunity effect and then lay down Mal'Ganis. Once The Jailer's Battlecry is active and Mal'Ganis is on the board, both the Warlock hero and his minions are all Immune.
On paper, that means it's impossible for the Warlock to lose. There are some ways to get around this. Priest has spells like Shadow Word: Ruin and Warrior can use Brawl, because they don't target anything directly. Outside of that, this is a winner of a combo for the Warlock and one that I can see getting out of control... assuming all the right pieces are in place.
The Mage's new Lightshow spell is a fun one, because it's one that gets progressively more powerful as more of them are used. One would imagine they need more than just two, but that's where the new Rewind and Volume Up spells come in, which could help add new copies of Lightshow to the player's hand.
Alliestrasza here also makes sure to have Kel'Thuzad, The Inevitable around as a backup win condition, but don't forget to take advantage of the new Infinitize the Maxitude spell. It's possible to find an expensive Pyroblast and then bust it out with DJ Manastorm later in the game, so make sure to keep that strategy in your back pocket.
Take a look at the new hotness in Priest. Overheal is a new mechanic that unleashes an effect whenever any character is healed for more than its maximum health. Crimson Clergy can use that effect to draw a card, for example. However, the hotness here is that the new Legendary minion, Heartbreaker Hedanis, will whack an enemy for 5 damage for any character that's overhealed. That racks up quickly with cards like Fan Club at the ready. The cheese here is that the new Cover Artist will act as a 3/3 copy of Heartbreaker Hedanis, which means players can multiply that effect more than once for a potential OTK.
Assuming you can pull the winning combo off before opponent (Death Knight and Warrior, specifically) health/armor totals get out of control, this is a solid play and one worth trying out.
This is a different twist on Druids that run low cost minions. The idea here is to play a multitude of Free Spirit and Groovy Cat minions, which increase the Druid Hero Power's Attack and Armor totals. Cover Artist, Unending Swarm, and Photographer Fizzle promise to keep those minions coming and can quickly increase that number to eye-opening levels.
Once the Hero Power Attack and Armor totals get to a staggering amount, it's time to play Zok Fogsnout, which gets flanked by Taunt minions of that same number, potentially putting Dr. Boom to shame.
Hearthstone pro Languagehacker has put together an interesting pure Shaman build that utilizes its Overload mechanic in some exciting new ways. The key to this deck is the Jazz Bass weapon, which discounts a spell as a Deathrattle for a greater amount depending on the number of Overload cards used. That has the potential to discount Criminal Lineup to a huge degree, giving players a chance to combine it with the new JIVE, INSECT! spell or the classic Al'Akir the Windlord for a quick OTK.
Inzah can also move things along by discounting Overload cards for the rest of the game. There are enough control options to sustain the Shaman here and if life totals get low, Altered Chord can get them right back in the game.
Warshack's combination of Relics and Outcast cards is a potent one. The new Outcast cards can help maintain board control while gearing up for the big drops. If players need to refresh their spells and win conditions, Photographer Fizzle and Ghost Writer are valuable tools to help on that end.
Relic Demon Hunter was already a powerful build before, but these new tools should keep it near the top of the meta.
The Hunter is getting a lot of reusable tools with Festival of Legends. Two spells to pack in, specifically, are Bunch of Bananas and Barrel of Monkeys, both of which can be used multiple times. These spells can help charge up many of the Naga minions in Standard, including Ancient Krakenbane and Queen Azshara.
The minion to keep an eye on here is Arrow Smith, which continues to ping the lowest health enemy with every spell cast. If the board is clear, Arrow Smith will wreak all kinds of havoc.
Here's a look at Hearthstone's latest class, the Death Knight. Ecore has an eclectic range of Death Knight cards, all using one of its three runes. That means using cards like Patchwerk, Frost Queen Sindragosa, and Blightfang.
The key to this deck is building to the new Legendary spell, Climactic Necrotic Explosion. The more Corpses a player spends over the course of the game, the greater its effect will be, making it potentially more reliable than The Scourge. It's also possible to find more of these spells through cards like Vulpera Scoundrel and the Death Knight's various Discover cards. Remember, this spell is one rune each, so it should come up more often with Discover effects.
As always, let's end this by putting the pros aside in favor of one of our decks. Admittedly, I didn't have a lot of success this time around. With so much happening at Shacknews, I didn't have enough time to sufficiently prepare for this round. That didn't stop me from settling on a fine Pure Paladin deck, which utilizes the disco aesthetic from the new expansion.
Divine Shields are where the disco effects come from and you'll see plenty of those with cards like Funkfin and Boogie Down. Jitterbug is a card you'll want to use a lot to keep your card draw going. Starlight Groove is an exceptionally useful card, as it's the first to give the Paladin hero itself Divine Shield, making it more viable to strike with the new Disco Maul weapon.
Keep the momentum going until you're able to play The Countess and ride those free Legendaries to victory.
Those are merely a few samples of the decks that you can use for day one of Hearthstone: Festival of Legends. What decks are you using for this new expansion and for the first day of the new Standard year? Join the conversation and give us your best decks in the comments. If you need a refresher on what other cards you can include in your deck, brush up on our guide to the Hearthstone Core set.