Blizzard and forcing archetypes to certain classes.

Debuting in August 2015, The Grand Tournament added new keywords to Hearthstone for the first time since the release of the base game. Inspire and jousting show that Blizzard is willing to utilize its position as the only online cardgame to add unique mechanics that would only work online, and to further capitalize on their already unique mechanics of classes and Hero Powers. While this is great, the cards released are rather telling that Blizzard is still attempting to force certain archetypes such as Control Hunter, Beast Druid, and now possibly Inspire Mage.

The goal of this article is not to say that Blizzard has always tried to force certain classes to only run certain decks. Murlocs have been around since the very beginning of the game, and Warlock has always been the most dominant Murloc class, despite the complete lack of unique Warlockloc (MrglglLoc) cards. Shaman and just recently Paladin are the only classes that have Murloc cards, yet only Warlock (and very rarely Druid) can abuse Murlocs to their full potential. This wasn’t Blizzard shoehorning it to the playerbase, but the playerbase finding what hero power and spells Murlocs worked best with, which was Warlock’s hero power and the old Soulfire.

When Goblins vs. Gnomes was announced, many players assumed that Warlock would be the best Mech class since its hero power helps keep tribal synergy pumping, but Mage and Shaman ended up being the dominant Mech classes, thanks to their powerful class cards. Even in this example, it isn’t like Blizzard gave only those two classes Mech cards, every class got one, and some of them had very strong stats such as Upgraded Repair Bot. Again though, these were what the playerbase tested to be the strongest Mech decks through trial and error.

Other examples, however, show Blizzard’s refusal to let some archetypes die. Beast Druid has been around since December, when Blizzard changed Druid of the Claw to Beast, and added Druid of the Fang and Malorne. BRM added another Beast in Druid of the Flame, and now The Grand Tournament is adding another two Beast synergy cards to Druid, along with another Druid Beast. Despite this, no one really thinks that Beast Druid is going to be good. It’s a fun gimmick for now, but is going to take some seriously good cards and a decent curve that doesn’t rely on the perfect hand as it does now. In a similar regard, Beast synergy Hunter is also trying to be a thing with the addition of Stablemaster and Ram Wrangler. However, no one has really built a Beast synergy deck since the days of the two mana Starving Buzzard, and the Beasts used in Hunter Decks now are just the strongest ones, like Savannah Highmane and Huffer (ha, memes). Yet Beast synergy is clearly wanted by Blizzard, and Hunter and Druid are going to be the ones that use it, since no other classes even has a beast card.

Wrapping this into the newest deck archetype into Hearthstone, Inspire minions are mostly neutral, with only 9 non-neutral Inspire cards existing (none for Rogue, 2 for Priest). So like Mech, no class really gets an obvious advantage of having a bunch of cards for this one archetype. The largest factors are therefore the strength of the class’ hero power, the strength of non-Inspire minions that effect the hero power, and the strength of their Inspire minions.

For instance, even though Priest has two Inspire minions, Spawn of Shadows is a 5/4 for 4 whose Inspire effect is to deal 4 damage to each hero. Aggro Priest may one day be strong, but this isn’t the card to do it. The other Inspire minion is the class legendary, a 7 mana 5/4 which summons a random legendary through Inspire. The playerbase has joked that she's really a 9 mana 5/4 who has the battlecry to summon a random legendary, since your opponent is not going to let you abuse her Inspire mechanic for more than one turn. In addition, Priest doesn’t exactly have the strongest hero power, since it doesn’t always have a strong direct impact on the board.

On the other hand, Mage’s hero power is one of the strongest in the game, since it always directly impacts the board the turn it is used. And unlike the other “deal one damage” you don’t have to tank any damage to your face. In addition, Mage got the strongest cards that actually buff their hero power, both Coldarra Drake and Fallen Hero are strong, mana efficient cards. Their Inspire minion isn’t all that great, a 3/5 for 4 mana that gains spell power for each Inspire proc. But the Drake and Fallen Hero are for now the best cards that let you abuse the Inspire mechanic. It’s still unsure if Inspire is even going to be good or not, but Mage will most likely be the class most abusing these cards thanks to their new class cards.

In a similar vein, both Shaman and Paladin are getting better board control with their hero power, thanks to cards that buff Totems and Silver Hand Recruits, respectively. While Totemic Might Shaman was never a valued deck before The Grand Tournament, new Totem cards are a big help at the very least. Again, probably won’t be the strongest deck due to the inherent RNG that comes with Shaman’s hero power, but it probably won’t suck, which means a lot for Shaman. After Goblins vs. Gnomes, Quartermaster was one of the most powerful cards in midrange Paladin, but the deck has slowly been phased out of the meta in favor of a more aggro variant. Now with The Grand Tournament’s release, Silver Hand Recruits are receiving even more cards to buff them. Most likely we won’t see a full Recruits buffing deck, but many of the cards to buff recruits will phase their way into the meta Paladin decks thanks to their strength.

Archetypes are an important part of any Trading Card Game, and every deck always has a central theme. So while Blizzard is pushing certain archetypes onto specific classes, it isn’t necessarily a negative thing. We’ll see how Inspire decks play out as the meta evolves post The Grand Tournament, but keep your eyes out for Mage, Shaman and Paladin to get the most out of their new cards.

Jason Mulachy