Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Published , by Ozzie Mejia
It's a big day for Hearthstone. The Year of the Pegasus has come to an end and it's now time to officially kick off the Year of the Raptor. The new Standard season begins with Hearthstone: Into the Emerald Dream. This expansion adds 145 cards across all 11 of the game's classes, giving half of them exciting new Imbue powers and giving the others some Dark Gifts.
With Into the Emerald Dream releasing today, it's time once again to browse through some decks from Hearthstone's most recognizable pros and streamers. Shacknews had a chance to play against some of these decks ourselves during the recent Hearthstone Theorycrafting session. As is often the case these days, we fared poorly. However, we did gain intel on some of the more interesting decks to play on day one and we're here to share those with the reading audience.
Without further delay, here are some decks worth trying out on day one of Into the Emerald Dream.
The Imbue effects for this expansion can be extremely powerful. For the Priest, it essentially gives them infinite value by offering a heavily discounted Priest card for every turn. Theo's deck takes the value theme even further by including cards like Puppet Theatre and Madame Lazul while also throwing in some big control tools like Lightbomb and the new Moonwell.
The Warrior has a lot of different tools available these days and Nohandsgamer is taking advantage of many of them. This deck has a lot going for it. It can ramp up quickly, it has big Taunt bodies, and it has ways to bring back many of those bodies after they've been dispatched.
Play around with some of these potentially fun combos. Carnivorous Cube and Ysondre are going to play very well together, especially with an increased Mana cap after dropping a few New Heights spells.
Every class' Imbue power is overpowered in its own way. Don't let the theme of 0-Cost, 1/1 Wisps fool you. Imbue Mage is really strong, especially as that Imbue power gets upgraded. Trump takes this idea to its upper limits with cards like Wisprider.
The MVP of this (and several other) Imbue deck is Sing-Along Buddy, which triggers Hero Powers twice. If that Hero Power is upgraded enough, the opponent won't be prepared for the complete onslaught of Hero Power blasts coming their way.
I don't believe this was ever supposed to happen with Demon Hunter. This isn't supposed to be the "tank" class. With that said, here we are.
The centerpiece of this deck is Arkonite Defense Crystal from the previous expansion. After using it to gain Armor, the idea becomes to play the new Ravenous Felhunter to resurrect two copies of that minion. The new Ferocious Felbat will then use its effect to resurrect the Ravenous Felhunters, which will in turn bring back the Arkonite Defense Crystals. The result is an obscene Armor number.
What can then be done with that massive Armor number? Well, at that point, The Exodar blows the opponent to oblivion with its effect of hitting the opponent for a number equal to that Armor amount. It's really quite incredible to see in action and it's nutty to see it coming from Demon Hunter.
Success with this deck is going to rely entirely on getting the Shaman's Imbue power up and running. An upgraded Imbue can be shockingly powerful, because the number of hits far outweighs the number of duds. Imbue the Shaman's Hero Power enough and you can turn a 1-Cost Murloc Growfin into a much more valuable 4 or 5-Cost card while still getting the value drops from the original minion.
If you can populate the board and prevent the opponent from establishing control, this is a wicked deck and one that was flying somewhat under-the-radar during the Theorycrafting session. Give it a look and see what you can do with it.
At some point, Day9's "larger and larger man" rant went from a legendary Hearthstone meme to a design mantra for the Hearthstone team. Yes, the Imbue Hero Power for Druid is basically all about making larger and larger men. Hamuul Runetotem is the key to this strategy, so if you don't have him, don't bother.
Players should have no trouble making larger and larger men with new Druid spells that create more spells themselves. I'm talking about stuff like Horn of Plenty basically acting as a double spell to get the Imbue power upgraded. Once again, Sing-Along Buddy becomes an active terror, as it triggers the Hero Power twice, creating two nightmarish goliaths for the opponent to deal with.
Clark HELLSCREAM may have cracked the code for the latest Paladin meta. The new Paladin legendary Ursol looks interesting, though a little uninspired, on the surface. There aren't too many expensive Paladin spells worth making into an Aura. Although there's at least one combination to keep an eye on. Those who can turn Renewing Flames into an Aura and then banish the board with Anachronos on the next turn can score a combo worth at least 10 damage to the opponent's face.
However, the most intriguing use of Ursol comes from Treasure Hunter Eudora, which is part of the Tourist package for the Rogue. Complete Eudora's sidequest to score a top-tier spell that's absolutely worth making into a repeating Aura. Something like Book of the Dead or Embers of Ragnaros can swing the game and is worth embarking on a treasure hunt to find.
We turn to the esports world again for another awesome deck, this time checking out Lynnee's Hunter deck. Hunter's Imbue Hero Power will grant the class discounted Beasts. The heavier the Beast discount, the more that players can throw down cheap King Plushes, as well as the new Malorne the Waywatcher. Strong cards from previous sets like Birdwatching and Sasquawk will help keep the pain raining down for multiple turns, but Hunter's going to have to strike quickly to win, because this deck isn't exactly known for its infinite resources.
Forget late game stuff. Don't think about those big 10-Cost minions. Sometimes, you need to get serious out of the gate and you either win in five turns or you don't. It's time to get aggro and Brigitteous might have the best of the early expansion aggro decks. New cards like Harbinger of the Blighted and Web of Deception fill up your board quickly while some returning Core cards like SI:7 Agent and Defias Ringleader have gotten some valuable buffs.
There isn't a lot of finesse with this Rogue deck. It's all about hitting fast and hitting hard. The best part is, this isn't even a particularly expensive deck to put together.
Leeches are everywhere as part of the new Death Knight build. Cards like Infested Breath and Sanguine Infestation will generate Health-sucking Leeches for the lowest-Health target. The best part is, if these Leeches go for the opponent's face, that Health cannot be recovered. Hideous Husk is the big boy, which will allow Leeches to steal additional Health as long as it's active. There aren't too many Leech cards out there, but if you get lucky, you might score another one off a Discover effect from something like Hematurge.
Those are just some of the decks that you're encouraged to use on day one of Hearthstone: Into the Emerald Dream. The expansion is going live today. What decks are you planning to use? Join the conversation and give us your best ideas in the comments.
