Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Published , by Ozzie Mejia
It's a time for celebration in Hearthstone. This isn't just the start of a new Standard year, but it's also the first expansion in Hearthstone's 10th anniversary year. The Year of the Pegasus is now underway and it begins with a new expansion, Hearthstone: Whizbang's Workshop. It adds 145 cards across all 11 of the game's classes, adding some new keywords that will change the way the game is approached, especially when combined with some of the new and returning cards from the new Core set.
Whizbang's Workshop opens its doors today and that means, once again, it's time to look at some decks from Hearthstone's most recognizable pros and streamers. Shacknews recently had a chance to play against some of these decks ourselves during last week's Hearthstone Theorycrafting session. More than anything, we were amazed by how many viable decks across many of the game's classes are out there. Plus, some are just plain fun.
Before going any further, here's where we must note that if you've absolutely hit a wall on what to put together, we recommend rolling the dice with the new Splendiferous Whizbang. Simply equip this Legendary into your deck and you'll automatically (and randomly) get a Whizbang deck to play with. We came up against some of these in last week's Theorycrafting session and they are shockingly competitive. Try them out if you're at a loss on how to get a few wins, but also if you just want to have a little fun.
Without any further delay, here are some decks worth trying out on day one of Whizbang's Workshop.
At last, Brian Kibler's day has come again. Dragon Priest is once again ready to take its place in the Hearthstone meta. That's mostly thanks to the new Timewinder Zarimi, which gives the Priest player an extra turn. However, that extra turn can only be taken once.
Fortunately, once is all a Priest player usually needs. That's because the classic vanilla version of Alexstrasza is back in Standard through the new Core set. Take that extra turn, knock an opponent down to 15 health and then wreck them before they even know what's what.
Jade Golems are back, albeit in a slightly different way. Instead of Battlecries, Jade Displays have their stats increased permanently every time one dies. That means they'll take a little longer to build up and it can be bad news if you don't draw one. Fortunately, RegisKillbin has put together the tools you need.
As you build your Jade Displays, use the draw effects from cards like Card Grader, Bottomless Toy Chest, and Workshop Janitor to keep drawing those Jades. Keep on playing them and watch them grow. Then play Joymancer Jepetto to get copies of the Jade Displays you played!
A potential backup win condition comes through the Druid's sudden affinity for Spell Damage. Take advantage of Magical Dollhouse and boost the returning (and cheaper) Swipe, hitting your opponent's face for potentially lethal damage.
BeingRachel makes her Day 1 deck feature debut with this take on the Wheel Warlock. What is the Wheel Warlock? Well, it focuses on the new Legendary Warlock spell, Wheel of DEATH!!! You know it's serious when "DEATH" is in all caps and there are three exclamation points. This spell destroys your deck, but it's a guaranteed destruction of the enemy hero in five turns, so the idea is that you have to survive whatever the opponent has on board while also surviving your own Fatigue damage.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to refill the Warlock's deck after the Wheel is spun. The new Zilliax Deluxe 3000's Return Module always ensures it returns to the player's deck if it's destroyed, so that should help matters. Felstring Harp briefly staves off Fatigue damage, while Symphony of Sins shuffles a bunch of spells into the Warlock's deck. In fact, Wheel on one turn and Symphony on the next turn seems to be the way to go.
Take advantage of the Excavate cards from the Showdown in the Badlands expansions to try and up the Warlock's max health as much as possible. You'll need it for the big Wheel play.
While Shaman is losing a handful of tools to the Standard rotation, it turns out that Nature finds a way. The latest Nature Shaman, as presented by Clark HELLSCREAM, is making the transition to a tempo deck. Players will want to try for as many Nature spells as possible, aided by cards like Shudderblock and Novice Zapper. Don't forget to play Inzah, because it'll set the table for big burst turns.
Be sure to keep your health up with the new Baking Soda Volcano, which can clear the board while also replenishing the Shaman's health count.
Usually, it's NohandsGamer coming up with winning decks, but this time around, he came across one that left him reeling. After losing to this Token Hunter deck from Sidisi, NohandsGamer gave it a shot himself and wound up doing some amazing work with it.
The key to victory here is getting a multitude of Beasts in play with cards like Remote Control. That allows Jungle Gym and Painted Canvasaur to work their effects. If you have a lot of Beasts in play, R.C. Rampage will put some big bodies on the board early. Restock your hand with Hemet, Foam Marksman and then be ready to finish with King Plush.
Having also played a variation of OldGuardian's deck, I can co-sign that this Demon Hunter deck that focuses on Magtheridon, Unreleased is strong. It requires some big Demons, but cards like Rush the Stage and Raging Felscreamer can help bring their costs down.
Magtheridon is a great Legendary because it works area-of-effect magic while it's in a dormant state. It stands as a massive body on its own, but if you still need it to keep chipping away at the opponent's board, simply use Red Card on it to put it back to sleep. Speaking putting minions to sleep, don't sleep on Crimson Expanse as a potential MVP. If your opponent has a big body with a Deathrattle that you could use, simply make a copy of your own with this Demon Hunter location.
Mech Rogue has been ruling the meta for a while and Whizbang's Workshop offers enough tools to keep it on top. The big one to watch out for is the new Sonya Waterdancer, which grants free copies of 1-Cost cards once they're played. That means any 1-Cost Magnetic Mechs that gets attached to your V-07-TR-0N Prime or Mimiron, the Mastermind get a second copy of that attachment for free.
Drawing is key to this deck's success, but it interestingly doesn't make use of the new draw tools like Everything Must Go! Fortunately, it doesn't look like this deck will really need it.
Zeddy points to a particularly powerful interaction with a few of the new Warrior cards. If you play the new Testing Dummy, replace your big Boom Wrench with your miniature Boom Wrench, and swing the weapon, you'll activate the Testing Dummy's effect twice and that's worth 16 damage across all enemies. That's nutty!
In fact, Testing Dummy on its own is fairly nutty. If two aren't enough, there's a good chance you can get more off of Inventor Boom!
Since Festival of Legends, variations of the Rainbow Death Knight have been a part of the meta. The most recent iteration has been building towards the Climactic Necrotic Explosion as a finisher and that build is getting much better with this new expansion. There are new ways to add corpses thanks to new cards like Shambling Zombietank, Rambunctious Stuffy, and Rainbow Seamstress. This will add to the player's body count and allow them to continue spending corpses to build to the final climax.
Of course, there's also a new Hero Card in the rotation. The Headless Horseman has a lot of potential to add to the Rainbow Death Knight's arsenal and really gets rolling once you find his head.
I'm not about to pretend this is the best Spell Mage deck you'll find, but I had a lot of fun messing around with the new Yogg in the Box and seeing what I could pull up with Infinitize the Maxitude.
Once you're ready to roll and you feel like you've gotten enough good spells out the door, drop The Galactic Projection Orb, which has the potential to polish off your opponents with any big spells from your deck, as well as any big boppers you may have discovered from other effects.
Those are just some of the decks that you're welcome to use on day one of Hearthstone: Whizbang's Workshop and the first day of the Year of the Pegasus. What are you planning to use? Join the conversation and give us your best decks in the comments.