Last week, Blizzard revealed its upcoming Hearthstone expansion: Whispers of The Old Gods. What’s particularly important about this expansion, is that when it launches in “late April/early May”, it will bring with it the new Wild and Standard play formats, with the Standard format removing a significant amount of cards from play. The good news is that this opens up Whispers of The Old Gods to have some truly unique cards, that just wouldn’t work in the old meta. While Blizzard hasn’t revealed all of the cards from the set just yet, we already have a few favorites we are looking forward to.
Eater of Secrets
The Eater of Secrets doesn’t just eat secrets, he drinks the Mysterious Challenger‘s tears. Standard format will see the removal of the only neutral anti-secret card: Kezan Mystic, so it seemed obvious Blizzard would give us a replacement. In true Blizzard style, they went all-out, giving us a card that can single handedly destroy what is currently one of the game’s most popular deck archtypes: secret Paladin.
Validated Doomsayer
So it looks like the Doomsayer was right after-all, and to celebrate the end he is jumping right into the fray himself. Getting a 7/7 on turn 5 is no laughing matter, with the only real downside being that your opponent can trade into it for free if he already has an established board. This is definitely a great snowball card for aggressive decks – if dropped when you have board control it can really cinch the game.
Giant Sandworm
Strangely enough, this hunter epic seems to be quite a bit better than all of the hunter legendaries combined… When used with Beastial Wrath, the sandworm can potentially clear an entire board, as well as deal 10 damage to the face. If you happen to have Tundra Rhino on board, it makes for an absolutely insane game-changing combo.
Ancient Shieldbearer
Shieldmaiden is one of the biggest staples of the control warrior archetype, providing both a solid, 5/5 body alongside a boost in armor. As it is a GvG card, it’s getting the chop in the game’s new Standard format. Luckily, Blizzard has revealed this beast, the Ancient Shieldbearer, which is a Sheildmaiden on crack – provided you have been buffing your C’thun. I predict C’thun warrior to be a viable new variation on control warrior.
Forbidden Shaping
Control priest is a very reactive deck. It reacts to what your opponent plays: removing minions, healing damage, and disrupting plays. Thus, when playing against another control or midrange deck, there are often times when the priest simply has nothing to play. Forbidden Shaping solves that issue by ensuring that he always has something to put on the board. What’s so great about this card is its versatility – if you desperately need an early-game minion to get board control, you can play it then. But, if you get good draws on your early game, you can hold onto it for late game and have it turn into a heavy hitter like Ysera.
Infested Tauren
Oh, hello Sludge Belcher. Fancy meeting you here. While not exactly the same (Infested Tauren’s summoned slime lacks taunt), this card sets the precedent for Blizzard making “re-prints” of popular cards that have been rotated out of standard. This card may become a new standard for control decks, giving players a fairly early answer to aggro decks.
Herald Volazj
Now, this is one interesting card. The first class legendary revealed for the set, Herald Volazj has an incredibly unique effect. Players can have seven minions in play, meaning that Volazj can potentially summon three 1/1 copies when played. While you may think that having a 1/1 copy of a card isn’t so powerful, when combined with cards that have powerful text effects like Sylvanas, Ragnaros, or Brann Bronzebeard, it can really swing the game.
C’thun
Finally, we come to the expansion’s star himself: the treacherous old god C’thun. C’thun is a really interesting card for many reasons. First up, he is guaranteed to be in the first Whispers of The Old Gods pack you open up, meaning that every player will have access to him. Combined with other cards like Twilight Elder and Beckoner of Evil, it’s possible to build an entire deck around powering up your C’thun, and then unleashing it to massive damage. With the (reported) upcoming nerfs to Big Game Hunter, it really makes for a legitimate strategy.
So those are our favorites. What do you guys think? Check out our Hearthstone coverage to see all of the other cards that have been revealed so far, and let us know in the comments.
