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Introduction

by Moonfell and David Wise (WiseTL)
The Curse of Naxxramas adventure mode has and is shaking up the landscape of Hearthstone. We've decided that now is a perfect time for a review of Hearthstone's history much like we did at the end of 2013.

Where we left off last year, Freeze Mage had just been nerfed and Enrage/Combo Warriors were all the rage. In those first few months of Hearthstone, however, the meta shifted almost weekly. As decks became more optimized the game seemed to settle before Naxxramas was released. Part of the reason for this stabilization was the Midrange Druid decks which came out at the beginning of the year. These decks were so stable that they became a gatekeeper of the top tier of decks: no deck without a consistent Druid matchup could consider itself top tier.

There was one deck, however, which comes before the Druids took over. To introduce it, and highlight how unstable the game used to be, here is the last line of the 2013 Review: "Warlock might be the dominant class today, but who knows what innovations or patch changes 2014 will bring. Who knows? Maybe even Hunter will get a chance in the spotlight one day. Nah, probably not."

Aggro Hunter

Hunters have been popular since players realized the power of . With consistent 2 damage pings, Hunters could deal huge damage combined with , Unleash the Hounds/Timber Wolf, and other Charge minions. The deck was so effective at dealing with the slow control decks at the time that it spread throughout Ladder and competitive play.

Face Hunter made Priest and Paladin decks almost extinct at the time, since the two classes did not have appropriate responses for deck's early-game pressure. While those two classes suffered, Druid, Warrior and other decks were forced to adapt to counter Face Hunter.

The original Hunter Aggro deck and the more familiar one.

Dawn of Midrange Druid

Watcher Druid became an answer to the prevalence of Hunter at the time. The seemingly useless 4/5 that couldn't attack suddenly peaked the interest of other players when someone discovered to activate it with taunt. With , , and s, Watcher Druid became a viable answer to the Hunter meta as the Hunter couldn't remove the big walls efficiently.

Additionally, Druids benefited from the discovery of the Force of Nature-Savage Roar combo. The combination gave Druids a way to close games with a sudden burst – this 14-damage combo quickly spread to almost all Druid decks.

The Ancient Watcher list and StrifeCro's original build.

Kitkatz Control Warrior

With Watcher Druid on the rise and Hunter starting to plummet, a new deck was introduced. KitKatz created a Warrior deck that was able to overpower the Druid late game. The deck also was also infamous for its hefty price due to copious Legendaries in the deck.

KitKatz Warrior featured many late-game minions such as , , , and to win while using and to stall. The deck also has cheap removal such as and in the early game with and s for early board control.

The Kitkatz control Warrior.

Return of the Murlock

Murlocs started to gain popularity as the go-to aggro deck when Control was back in the meta. While not as strong as Aggro Hunter in terms of raw damage, Warlock Murloc was a more resilient option. The Murloc deck used the efficient minions to contest the board early while keeping pace with .

Puffins Murlock

Reynad Opens the Zoo

Reynad posted a very popular Warlock build during the Control meta and it quickly exploded on Ladder due its low cost and effectiveness. This deck by Reynad was similar to many of the other board control decks which have come before it. The main change which Reynad made was the substitution of the recently nerfed for s and the inclusion of s for extra reach.

The first Zoo deck is very similar to the present Zoo, but ran , , and s before the three were nerfed. The first Zoo dominated the meta at the time due to its speed and ferocity. In time, Zoo became the deck to climb the ladder, replacing its Murloc counterpart.

Reynad Zoo

A Legendary Nerf

was very common in a wide variety of decks. Thus, just like before it, Blizzard decided to nerf Pagle because of its prolific use. Pagle’s ability to draw an extra card moved to the beginning of the player’s turn, giving the opposing player the extra opportunity to neutralize it. The nerf succeeded in its intended effect: vastly reduced sightings in Hearthstone decks as players sought other alternatives for card draws.

was originally a cost-effective hard removal card. For 3 mana,
would transform a target creature into a 1/1 squirrel or a 5/5 dinosaur. This was an effective method of removing taunts or neutralizing big creatures like . The balance team at Blizzard believed that was too effective for its cost. Even though the new became a 3/3, it could not target which creature to transform, which rendered it too volatile for competitive play.

Second Coming of Hunter Aggro

With the ladder swarming with either Zoo or decks filled with Taunts, a new variation of Hunter emerged. This new Aggro Hunter deck contained similar cards to the old Aggro Hunters, but with the addition of and . These cards cleared annoying taunts so Hunters could deal continuous damage to their opponent.

This deck was also used to counter Zoo. Because Zoo swarmed the board with cheap, weak minions, Hunter efficiently dealt with the deck thanks to and . Once again, Aggro Hunter dominated the ladder much to the dismay of many players.

Trap-based Hunter Aggro.

The Control Warrior Explosion

Big armor and big creatures epitomized Control Warrior. This iteration traded cards like for , , , and to set up armor and card draws for the ultimate late game. The Control Warrior late game, when executed properly, seemed nigh unstoppable as high cost minions and high armor allowed it to go the distance versus most decks (especially with cards such as that could damage the board). This Control Warrior was effective at handling Zoo decks as well as mid-range focused compositions. The deck lost favor among many players, however, due to the rise of Hand Warlock, Shaman, Druid, and Miracle Rogue decks. While Control Warrior still sees play on ladder and in tournaments, it isn't nearly as common now as during its initial ascent.

Midrange Hunter

Just when Hunter just couldn't get better, it did. Lifecoach made a very unique mid-range deck that combined and UTH with big minions like and . Kolento also used this deck frequently and made a name for himself as one of the best Hunter players in the game as he went to Legend rank twice using Hunter.

This particular deck was focused more on board control early while dealing huge damage in the mid game. , , and the fear of UTH combo kept opponents in line in the early game while overwhelming them in the mid-game with powerful minions such as . was also a frequent with deck to give it more removal in conjunction with and UTH. This deck kept a strong presence on ladder and in tournaments until Miracle Rogue emerged as a counter.

Kolento's Midrange Hunter.

A Miraculous Return

Everyone's Favourite

In the beta, Rogue reigned supreme until Blizzard adjusted some combo cards to nerf the class. Rogue seemed mediocre until the current iteration of Miracle Rogue reared its head. The deck relied on cheap spells, Combo cards, and to draw the necessary pieces to set up a OTK combo (usually with , , and ). rendered the Auctioneer practically immune in most cases, which allowed the Rogue to prepare the dreaded OTK in the following turn. The effectiveness of the deck, especially versus Hunter, led to its prolific use. Thanks to the Miracle variation, Rogue still ranks as the top class according to most pros.

Kolento's first Miracle list.

Unleash the Nerfed Hounds

At the peak of the Hunter’s prowess, it seemed nigh unstoppable. At its core was the two-mana . The cheap mana cost made it a great combo card with the likes of , , or , as well as an effective punish for an opponent’s stacked board. The near-impossibility of dealing with placed Hunter as one of the most-played and most-reviled decks in the meta. Blizzard saw that sucked the fun out of the game for many players so they increased the cost from two to three mana. While the change was small, it prevented many Hunters from executing mid-game lethals and brought stabilized Hunter matchups in the meta.

Too Much Burst?

As Hearthstone players spent more time with the various classes, refined methods to abuse high damage combos emerged. As these burst damage combos became more prevalent, HearthTrolden “sexy sax” videos experienced a boon in content. However, to those on the receiving end of these heavy hitting strats, this represented a seemingly unfair and fun-sucking aspect of the game. Miracle Rogue triple , Druid Force of Nature/Savage Roar, Shaman Bloodlust/Rockbiter/Windfury, Leeroy/Faceless, Beast/Kill Command, as well as other combos struck fear in all those who dared to drop below 20 health.

A Mage-icle Comeback

Early in Hearthstone’s short lifespan, Freeze Mage was the top dog. It was so prolific that Blizzard nerfed and freeze spells to try to right the meta. Afterwards, Mage fell out of favor in competitive play, outside of aggro decks, due to the high mana cost of spells as well as weak card draw options. However, in an environment dominated by Hand Warlock and Miracle Rogue, Freeze Mage found new breath as a meta-busting counter. The WellPlayed Cup and Dreamhack Summer tournaments illustrated the potential of the new Freeze Mage. RDU utilized Freeze Mage in Dreamhack Summer to sweep Amaz’s Druid, Hunter, and Priest decks in the grand finals. Ironically, Tidesoftime used a Freeze Mage deck in the WellPlayed Cup grand finals to jump to a 3-0 lead over RDU before he finally needed to switch decks. In a somewhat stale meta, Freeze Mage provided another option for those serious about competitive Hearthstone.

Rdu Freeze Mage from Dreamhack.

Writers: Moonfell and Wiseling
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Editors: Hayl_Storm, monk, and xes.

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