This year, as part of a cross-promotion between Twitch Prime and Hearthstone, the first-ever Oktoberbrawl took place. Featuring six popular streamers divided into two teams, as well as a rule-set that was different from anything seen before, this mini-tournament had four weeks of matches from September 11^th to October 6^th, with the Oktoberbrawl Grand Finals taking place at TwitchCon on October 20^th.

The premise of Oktoberbrawl was simple: All six players participating in the event would receive a fresh account, 10 Classic packs, and a Welcome Bundle. On the Monday of every week, the contestants would each receive 10 packs from two different expansions. Then, on Wednesdays, they would receive a percentage of the second group of packs based on how many times players using their team’s card back (which came for free with a subscription to Twitch Prime) won games in Ranked Play.

Because Oktoberbrawl was a partnership between Hearthstone and Twitch, the players chosen for this event were some of the highest profile streamers in Hearthstone right now: Dog, Thijs and J4CKIECHAN for Team Void, and Kripparrian, Reynad and Alliestrasza for Team Light. All six of these players have popular Twitch streams, which made them the perfect candidates for this competition.

 

Week One:

The excitement began on September 11^th, when the contestants opened their first card packs and got to work building new decks with their very limited resources. Because of the Welcome Bundle and the 30 packs they were given, the players all were guaranteed to receive at least 4 Legendaries and a large variety of Epics, Rares and Commons, which would serve as the foundation of the decks they’d create.

On September 15^th, Team Light and Team Void had their first showdown. Using their Basic and Classic cards, along with a small selection cards from Goblins vs Gnomes and The Grand Tournament, the players each brought three decks to use in this grudge match.

The first round of the day pitted Thijs of Team Void against Alliestrasza of Team Light. In the first game of this round, Thijs played an Aggressive Mech Shaman against Alliestrasza’s Midrange Hunter. Thanks to the superior tempo tools present in the Shaman class, Thijs took a commanding early game lead over the Hunter. Alliestrasza actually nearly managed to come back, but then Thijs top-decked the lethal Lightning Bolt, putting the series score to 1-0.

In the second game, Thijs attempted to run a Control Priest, but Alliestrasza was on the verge of beating him with her Mech Mage when she suddenly lost connection. This forced the players to restart the game, but Alliestrasza’s deck was still better, and she soundly defeated him once again to tie the series 1-1.

Mech Mage made another appearance in the final game of the first round, as Thijs played it against Alliestrasza’s Zoo Warlock. For a while, the two players battled back and forth fairly evenly, but then Thijs managed to take a commanding board lead, and he took the series 2-1.

In the second round of the first day, Reynad of Team Light battled against J4CKIECHAN of Team Void. The first game of this round marked the third appearance of Mech Mage so far, as Reynad ran it against J4CKIECHAN’s Control Paladin. Traditionally a very favorable matchup for the Mage, the lack of powerful control cards in J4CKIECHAN’s deck only served to exacerbate this issue, and Reynad quickly won to go ahead in the series, 1-0.

In the next game, J4CKIECHAN brought out a Zoo Warlock against Reynad’s Shaman. This game should have been somewhat close, but Reynad failed to draw any early-game cards, which led to J4CKIECHAN easily taking the match, which brought the series score to 1-1.

In the final game of the second round, Reynad played a Control Paladin against J4CKIECHAN’s Midrange Druid. Reynad had a lot of powerful control cards, but he was unable to keep up with the power J4CKIECHAN managed to generate thanks to several lucky—or unlucky if you were supporting Team Light—jousts. Despite this, Reynad still nearly managed to come back in the game, but then J4CKIECHAN top-decked a Savage Roar to win the game and take the match 2-1.

The final round of the first day pitted Kripparrian, a streamer well known for his success in the Arena, against Dog, who is famous for not taking his shirt off. In the first game of this round, Kripparrian played a basic Zoo Warlock, while Dog ran the fourth Mech Mage of the day. This game was very back-and-forth until Dog pulled a Roaring Torch off the top of his deck at just the right time to win the match and take a lead in the series, 1-0.

The second game of the final round featured the first and only mirror match of the day, as two Mech Shamans went toe-to-toe. This should have meant that it would be a close game, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth, as Kripparrian shot off to an early lead and never looked back, tying up the series 1-1.

Mech Mage returned one last time for the final game of the day, as Kripparrian played it against Dog’s Aggro Warrior. In every game of the day up to this point, Mech Mage had easily triumphed over its opposition—however, after a pair of Kripparrian’s Spellslingers gave Dog the perfect cards for the situation at hand, the Aggro Warrior brought out Leeroy Jenkins to seal the game and take the series, 2-1.

Week 1 VOD — https://go.twitch.tv/videos/174956832

 

Week 2:

The second week of Oktoberbrawl began on September 18^th. This week, the contestants were given Whispers of the Old Gods and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan card packs to add to their arsenal, in preparation for the second grudge match, which took place on September 22^nd.

In the first round of the second week, Reynad battled against Thijs in an attempt to reverse the course of the first week. At first, it looked like he’d succeed, as his Zoo Warlock got off to a quick start against the Mech Shaman Thijs was running. Unfortunately, however, Reynad ended up running out of steam about halfway through the match, and Team Void took a 1-0 lead in the series.

In the second game of the first round, Mech Mage returned once more, as Reynad took on a Control Paladin from Thijs. As Reynad had experienced in the first week, Mech Mage is very strong against Control Paladin, and he managed to defeat Thijs and tie the series, 1-1.

In the final match of the first round, Reynad brought out an Aggro Shaman against yet another Mech Mage. Mech Mage had only lost one game in this entire competition, and this success continued, as its powerful tempo plays drowned out Reynad’s minions to take the series 2-1.

With Thijs’s victory, Team Void had won 4 games in a row, which meant that it was up to Kripparrian to turn things around for Team Light against J4CKIECHAN. Fortunately, Kripparrian had the tools to do just that, as he brought out the Mech Mage once more against J4CKIECHAN’s Aggro Rogue. Like it had done so many times before, the Mech Mage absolutely dominated the match, and Kripparrian took the Rogue down to take an early 1-0 lead in the series.

In the second game of the round, Kripparrian ran a Mech Shaman against what appeared to be a Zoo Warlock. However, J4CKIECHAN’s deck soon showed its true face, as he played the infamous Renounce Darkness. Transforming all of the Warlock Cards in his deck into random Shaman cards that cost one less than normal, J4CKIECHAN attempted to out-tempo Kripparrian with a swarm of cheap cards. Unfortunately, J4CKIECHAN ended up drawing a bunch of low-impact cards, which led to Kripparrian taking the first series win for Team Light in a 2-0 victory.

In the final round of the second day, Alliestrasza took on Dog in a match that would determine who would win the week. In the first game, Mech Mage made yet another appearance, as Alliestrasza used it against Dog’s Aggro Shaman. Up to this point, Mech Mage had only lost one game in the entire competition, but Dog managed to out-tempo Alliestrasza in the early game, which led to her defeat.

Things were looking bad for Team Light, but then, Alliestrasza brought out a C’thun Druid against Dog’s Midrange Hunter. Thanks to the massive Taunt minions included in this deck—and the Coins from a Cutpurse she pulled out of a Piloted Shredder—Alliestrasza shut down Dog’s aggression and tied up the series 1-1.

In the final game of the second week, Alliestrasza played a Mech Hunter against Dog’s Mech Mage. One of the closest games of the entire competition so far, this match went back and forth between the two for several turns until Alliestrasza managed to secure the board with a Houndmastered Carrion Grub. Two turns later, she crushed the Mage with a charging King Krush, and she took the series 2-1 for Team Light.

Week 2 VOD — https://go.twitch.tv/videos/176667021

 

Week Three:

The third week of the Oktoberbrawl started on September 25^th, as cards from Journey to Un’Goro and Knights of the Frozen Throne were brought into the mix. Packs were opened, decks were modified, and then, on September 29^th, the third grudge match began.

For the third week in a row, Reynad was the starter for Team Light, going up against Dog in the first round. In the first match of the day, Reynad played a Zoo Warlock against a Shaman Deck that the casters referred to as ‘Melting Pot Shaman’, because of all the different tribes it featured. Thanks to a wide selection of powerful early-game cards, Reynad shot off to a quick lead in this match, but Dog managed to come back (thanks to a pair of cheap Things From Below and an Invocation of Air from Kalimos), before sealing the match with an army of Totems to gain the series lead 1-0.

In the second game of the first round, Reynad played Mech Mage against a Control Paladin from Dog. In both of the occasions when this matchup had appeared in earlier weeks, it went very well for the Mech Mage, and this was no exception, as Reynad managed to take the game and tie up the series 1-1.

Mech Mage made yet another appearance in the final game of the first round, as Dog played it against a Control Warrior from Reynad. Back in the day, this was a fairly even matchup—however, in this game, Dog used a Micro-Machine to gain a quick damage advantage and he finished off his opponent on turn 6 with a Fireball-Frostbolt combo to take the first series 2-1.

With Reynad falling yet again, it was now time for the second round, where Alliestrasza took on J4CKIECHAN. In the first game, Alliestrasza brought out a Mech Shaman against a Midrange Token Paladin from J4CKIECHAN. Despite having better cards overall, Alliestrasza was unable to deal with the wide boards J4CKIECHAN created, and she ended up falling in defeat, which gave J4CKIECHAN a 1-0 lead in the series.

In the second game, Alliestrasza brought out her Midrange Mech Hunter from week two against J4CKIECHAN in the hopes of evening the series. Unfortunately, J4CKIECHAN decided to play a Mech Shaman, which absolutely tore apart the Midrange Hunter and gave Team Void the series win, 2-0.

These defeats put Team Light out of contention for the day, but there was still one round to go, as Thijs took on Kripparrian. In the first round of this final match, Thijs pulled out the Mech Handbuff Paladin against Kripparrian’s Mech Shaman. Thanks to an early Grimestreet Outfitter, Thijs was able to generate a lot of pressure early and nearly secure the game. At the last moment, however, Kripparrian used Thrall, Deathseer to turn an injured 6-mana minion into a charging Grommash Hellscream, which quickly won the game for the Shaman and put Kripparrian up 1-0.

In the next game, Thijs brought out a Control C’thun Druid in an attempt to control the game. This turned out to be utterly impossible, however, as Kripparrian fielded a heavily tuned Control Warlock that ran every board clear in the game, along with the mighty Lord Jaraxxus. Preventing Thijs from ever developing any kind of pressure, Kripparrian took complete control of the board and eventually took the game to win the series 2-0.

Even though Team Light had failed to win the day, Kripparrian had played really well yet again, which was a ray of hope for the future.

Week 3 VOD — https://go.twitch.tv/videos/178382750

 

Week Four:

In week four—which began on October 2^nd—the players did something different. Instead of getting cards from one of the expansions, the contestants were allowed to play one Adventure of their choice for a short period of time in an attempt to collect a few more powerful cards. For example, Kripparrian played through the first several wings of One Night in Karazhan, while Alliestrasza ran through League of Explorers.

The grudge match for week four occurred on October 6^th, and the first round began with Kripparrian of Team Light battling against Dog from Team Void. In the first game of this round, Kripparrian decided to play a Control Priest with lots of healing, Taunts and board clears, while Dog used a basic Aggro Shaman. For a while, this game was very close, but eventually, Dog managed to break through Kripparrian’s wall to take him out and secure the lead in the series, 1-0.

The second game of the first round was a Warlock mirror match, as Kripparrian played his Control Warlock from week three against Dog’s Hobgoblin Warlock. Combining cheap cards such as the Murloc Tinyfin or the Wisp with the powerful Hobgoblin effect, Dog consistently got onto the board—only to be driven off by Kripparrian’s powerful board clears. For a while, Dog tried to hang in the game, but it wasn’t long before he ran out of resources and was defeated, evening the series to 1-1.

In the third game of the first round, Mech Mage popped its head up once again in opposition to Kripparian’s Mech Shaman. For a match between two Aggro Decks, this game was actually surprisingly back and forth, until Dog finally secured the game with a Fireball and Fireblast combo to take the series 2-1.

In the second series of the day, Reynad took on Thijs in a rematch of the first week of the competition. In the first round of the match, Reynad brought out the Mech Mage against a Mech Shaman from Thijs. While Mech Mage is very strong at getting onto the board, it also struggles heavily if it ever runs out of resources, which is a situation Reynad found himself In about halfway through the game. Overwhelmed by Thijs’s big minions, Reynad attempted to fight back, but it wasn’t good enough, and he went down thanks to a top-decked Fire Elemental.

This put Team Void up 1-0 in the standings for this game, but Reynad wasn’t done yet, as he brought an Aggro Shaman to battle against Thijs’s Control Paladin. Despite an early lead in this game, however, Reynad just wasn’t able to maintain his control of the board (an issue that plagued him throughout the entire event), and he was eventually taken down by Thijs, who went 2-0 in the series.

In the final round of the fourth week, Alliestrasza took on J4CKIECHAN, who was trying out something a bit different with these decks. In the first game, Alliestrasza ran a Reno Paladin against a Control Priest from J4CKIECHAN in what was probably the slowest game of the entire event. Lasting for more than twenty minutes, it went all the way into fatigue before Alliestrasza was finally defeated, and J4CKIECHAN jumped to a 1-0 lead in the series.

In the second-to-last game of the final regular day, Alliestrasza pulled out the Mech Mage one last time, while J4CKIECHAN played a Control Druid of some kind. Unlike in the previous game, however, J4CKIECHAN ran out of ways to deal with Alliestrasza’s minions, and he was beaten into submission by a tide of damage, tying up the series 1-1.

With all these games in the book, it was now time for the final match of the fourth week. Alliestrasza was all ready for this, as she brought out a Reno Control Paladin. After week two, everyone was expecting some kind of crazy antics from J4CKIECHAN, so there weren’t that many that were surprised when he brought Renounce Darkness once again. However, when J4CKIECHAN transformed into a Shaman and actually began winning the game, everything changed.

Alliestrasza was simply unable to keep up with the high tempo J4CKIECHAN was managed to put out, so in the end, he and his Renounce Darkness Warlock managed to take Alliestrasza down and secure the 2-1 victory over Team Light.

Week 4 VOD — https://go.twitch.tv/videos/180157483

 

TwitchCon

Even though Team Void was ahead 3-1 in the weekly grudge matches, they had not yet won the tournament. If they truly wanted to triumph in the Oktoberbrawl, they would have to defeat the members of Team Light in one last match at TwitchCon, which would take place on October 20^th.

Both teams were gearing up for this final confrontation, but then, a real-life disaster struck for Team Light. On October 17^th, just days before the final matches of Oktoberbrawl, Kripparrian—who up to this point had been the one bright spot on his team—came down with a case of acute appendicitis. Fortunately, he was able to get to the hospital before any permanent damage was done, but this meant that he would be unable to travel to TwitchCon for the championship.

Team Light was forced to scramble for a worthy replacement for the Arena Master, and they found it in the form of Disguised Toast. One of, if not the most popular Hearthstone streamer on Twitch right now, Disguised Toast was the perfect choice to take Kripparrian’s place.

On October 20^th, the final showdown between Team Light and Team Void began. Now, in this final best of three, there was an added twist thrown in. For every week that a team won, they’d get to give a member of the opposing team a sabotage. As Team Void had won the opening rounds 3-1, they got to give all three members of Team Light a sabotage, while Team Light only had one to apply to Team Void.

In the first game of the Oktoberbrawl Championships, Reynad ran a Control Rogue against Dog’s Hobgoblin Warlock. Team Light used their only sabotage in this game (forcing Dog to dress as a Murloc while playing) while Team Void used the first of their three (by making Reynad play with heavy gauntlets).

Dog got off to a quick start in this game, playing a Hobgoblin and three 1-attack minions on turn three for a very powerful board. Unable to deal with this board, Reynad took a lot of damage up to turn 6, when he used a Gadgetzan Auctioneer and a bunch of 0-mana spells to deal with Dog’s board. Unfortunately, Dog was able to build up a board once more, and he dropped Reynad all the way to 2 health—but then, Reynad pulled out the Yogg-Saron.

In a flurry of spells, Yogg-Saron destroyed Dog’s biggest minion and cleared the rest of his board (with the exception of a 0/2 Nat Pagle). Things were looking great for Reynad, but then, with the final spell, Yogg-Saron gave Dog’s Nat Pagle a Blessing of Kings. Reynad had no way to clear the now 4/6 minion, and he ended up losing on the following turn, giving Team Void the lead, 1-0.

In the second game of the championship, Disguised Toast took on J4CKIECHAN. Playing in place of Kripparrian, Disguised Toast brought out the Control Warlock, while J4CKIECHAN played his Renounce Darkness Warlock. Team Void also applied the second of their three sabotages in this game, which meant that Disguised Toast was only given thirty seconds to play each turn.

This game started slowly enough, but the excitement factor jumped to eleven on turn four, as J4CKIECHAN played Renounce Darkness and transformed his Warlock deck into a Priest deck. Leveraging the tempo lead gained by the reduced cost of his Priest cards, J4CKIECHAN took control of the board for a bit, but then, Toast managed to clear his minions with the help of Mogor the Ogre and a powerful Defile.

A couple turns later, Disguised Toast transformed his hero into Lord Jaraxxus, only to discover that J4CKIECHAN had a few surprises of his own. Using Shadowform (the Classic card, not the Knights of the Frozen Throne Hero Card), J4CKIECHAN began chipping away at Jaraxxus’ health, while using some board clears stolen from Disguised Toast’s deck to help defend against the Infernals summoned by Jaraxxus’ Hero Power. For several turns, it was a very tight game, but then, J4CKIECHAN failed to make the correct read on the potential burst damage in Disguised Toast’s hand, and he was defeated.

With the series tied 1-1, everything came down to the final game, where Thijs’s Control Paladin faced off against Alliestrasza’s Burn Mage. Using their third and final sabotage, Team Void forced Alliestrasza to say a Mage emote at the beginning of every turn. Fortunately, Alliestrasza was up to the task, ably reciting Jaina’s emotes as she progressed through the game.

Starting out strong, Alliestrasza seized control of the board, using her hero power and cheap removal spells such as Flamecannon to deal with Thijs’s minions. Moving into the mid-game, she started playing Ethereal Conjurer’s to discover more spells and reload her hand in preparation for a late-game Antonidas.

Unfortunately, this is where everything went wrong. Thijs was able to get a Bonemare on the board, which he promptly buffed into a 10/10 with Blessing of Kings. Alliestrasza managed to deal with this minion by freezing it with a Frost Bolt, but this was only a temporary solution, as Thijs built up a massive board with Sunkeeper Tarim. Alliestrasza did everything she could, but it wasn’t enough, and in the end, she fell to the relentless onslaught from Thijs.

With this victory, Team Void won the series and the entire Oktoberbrawl. Despite their defeat in the end, however, Team Light played really well, and overall, this was one of the most entertaining Hearthstone tournaments that I’ve seen. Hopefully, Blizzard takes some cues from this when designing events in the future (although preferably without requiring players to buy into Twitch Prime), as it could open up a lot of fun options!

TwitchCon VOD — https://go.twitch.tv/videos/183741742 (Starts 32 minutes in)

The most iconic cards of their respective expansions, the Quests from Journey to Un’Goro and the Death Knight Hero Cards from Knights of the Frozen Throne are very similar in concept. The Quests are class-specific Legendary Spells that completely define the decks they’re played in, while the Death Knight cards are class-specific Legendary Hero Cards (a new type of card) that are the cornerstone of their decks.

Because of these traits, both Quests and Death Knights have played a pivotal role in many of the decks that have appeared recently. As a result, there’s only one question left to be asked: which type of card is better? To answer this important question, I’m going to compare Quests and Death Knights in several different categories in order to see which of them is truly the most powerful card type in Hearthstone.

 

The Basics

Quests: One-Mana Legendary Spells, Quests always start in your opening hand so they can be played on turn one. Depending on which of the nine Quests you’re running, you’ll then have to accomplish a specific goal—such as discard 6 cards or play 7 minions with Taunt—in order to receive a powerful reward. These rewards are 5-mana cards (with the exception of the Warrior quest reward) which do incredible things.

Death Knights: Legendary Hero Cards, the Death Knights range in cost from 5-mana to 10-mana. When played, the Death Knight will actually replace your current hero, grant you 5 armor, change your hero power into something new, and somehow affect the board state in a major way (such as equipping a powerful weapon or summoning all of your Demons that died so far in the game).

 

Power Level

Quests: The most powerful Quests are Fire Plume’s Heart and Open the Waygate. The rewards you receive from these Quests (Sulfuras and Time Warp, respectively) are incredibly powerful and are their decks’ main win conditions. The Caverns Below used to be on this tier as well, until it got hit by the nerf bat and dropped out of contention.

As good as these Quests are, however, some of the others are on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Lakkari Sacrifice (the Warlock Quest), Jungle Giants (the Druid Quest) and The Marsh Queen (the Hunter Quest) are all easy enough to complete, but their rewards are very weak. The Imps generated from the Nether Portal (Lakkari Sacrifice’s reward) die too easily to board clears or zoo decks, and while the 5-mana 8/8 stats of Queen Carnassa and Barnabus (the rewards for The Marsh Queen and Jungle Giants, respectively) are kind of good, their effects just aren’t very strong.

Finally, in between these six quests, there are three more (The Last Kaleidosaur, Awaken the Makers and Unite the Murlocs) which are neither insanely strong nor very weak. While the rewards from Awaken the Makers and Unite the Murlocs are good, they aren’t really game-winning. As for The Last Kaleidosaur, while Galvadon (the reward) is incredibly strong, the Quest itself is difficult to complete reliably. As a result, these three Quests—while not as useless as Lakkari Sacrifice, Jungle Giants or The Marsh Queen—aren’t the type of cards you’d run in top tier decks.

Death Knights: While only one of the Death Knights (Shadowreaper Anduin) possesses the game-ending power of Open the Waygate or Fire Plume’s Heart, all of the Death Knights are strong in their own ways. Bloodreaver Gul’dan, Malfurion the Pestilent and Frost Lich Jaina grant their users board presence and late-game healing; Uther of the Ebon Blade and Scourgelord Garrosh receive powerful weapons; Deathstalker Rexxar and Valeera the Hollow gain infinite (or near-infinite) value; and Thrall, Deathseer grants some cheap, early-game tempo.

All of these cards are very good for their mana cost, which means that they can all be safely run in nearly every deck that isn’t an aggro deck.

Winner: Tie. While the high-end Quests are more powerful than the Death Knights, most of the Quests are a bit worse. As a result, the average power level of the two types of cards is about the same.

 

Required Deck Dedication

Quests: By their very design, Quests require a lot of deck dedication. If you want to complete Open the Waygate, you’ll need to include lots of ways to get additional Spells, while if you’re playing Fire Plume’s Heart, you’ll need to add lots of Taunt minions. As a result, you can’t just add a Quest to your deck—you have to build your deck specifically around it.

Death Knights: Unlike Quests, most of the Death Knights require little to no deck dedication. Of course, there are things you can do to make them work better, such as include lots of cheap cards for Shadowreaper Anduin or toss in a bunch of Demons for Bloodreaver Gul’dan, but even these cards are pretty good without any support.

Winner: Death Knights. You can slot Death Knights into nearly every non-aggressive deck, which makes them a bit more versatile.

 

Costs

Quests: While the Quests only cost one Mana, their main cost is in cards. By keeping a Quest in your opening hand, you’re reducing the number of tools you have to work with in the early game. In some cases, this won’t make much of a difference, but in many cases (especially when playing against aggressive decks), sacrificing that card can cost you the game.

Death Knights: Death Knights cost a lot more than Quests, with the cheapest (Thrall, Deathseer) costing 5 Mana and the most expensive (Bloodreaver Gul’dan) priced at 10 Mana. Despite this, however, Death Knights don’t cost a card in your opening hand (unless you happen to pull them after the Mulligan), which means that they don’t hamper your early game while still being available late.

Winner: Death Knights. The cost in card advantage that you pay for Quests is usually more harmful than the cost in Mana paid for Death Knights.

 

Consistency

Quests: Because they start in your hand, getting Quests into play is incredibly easy. The trick comes in trying to complete them. For some of the Quests, such as Fire Plume’s Heart, it’s pretty easy to get all the cards you need; on the other hand, Quests like The Last Kaleidosaur can be very difficult to complete. On the whole, however, Quests are usually pretty consistent from game to game.

Death Knights: Because they don’t start in your opening hand, Death Knights can be a bit hit or miss. Fortunately, because most of them are late-game cards, you have a bit of time to go through your deck to look for them. Even with this caveat, however, Death Knights are still a bit less consistent than the Quests.

Winner: Quests. While Death Knights can be drawn with time, they can’t beat the reliability of always having your Quest in your opening hand.

 

Free-to-Play Viability

Quests: Because of how dependent Quests are on having just the right synergies to work with them, you’ll need to craft a lot of (potentially very expensive) cards in order to get the most out of the Legendary Spells.

Death Knights: Because of their versatility, Death Knights can be run in any deck, even if you have nothing but Basic Cards. This means that players without any money can easily build good decks around any of the Death Knights they open.

Winner: Death Knights. Unlike Quests, Death Knights can be used without any supporting cards, which makes them a lot more viable for Free-to-Play players.

 

Verdict:

Even though Quests have the potential to be a bit more powerful, most of them fail to live up to their expectations. Only two of the nine Quests are actually playable in reasonably high-tier decks, and those require a large amount of supporting cards. On the other hand, all nine of the Death Knights are powerful and are all viable on the ladder. In addition, Death Knights—while not quite as consistent as Quests—cost fewer resources to play, and are much easier for Free-to-Play players to build decks around.

The Grand Winner: Death Knights

 

So, what do you think of this competition? Do you agree that the Death Knights are the more powerful cornerstone cards, or are you a fan of the Quests? Tell me what you think in the comments below, and I’ll see you on the ladder!

The Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion is here, and I’ve already started work on new decks. So far, I’ve tried out several different decks and archetypes, to varying degrees of success. These are the decks I’ve created so far, as well as my thoughts on how they performed.

 

Freeze Shaman

Originally, I was planning to start with a Paladin deck of some kind, but then I opened both Moorabi and Thrall, Deathseer in my first few packs, I decided that I had no choice but to build a Freeze Shaman deck. Tossing in all the new Freeze cards (along with some older ones), I tried to see if the deck would work out.

At first, things went pretty well—a lot of the decks I was matched up against were Midrange, minion-based archetypes (such as Paladin and Enrage Warrior), and I easily defeated them. Things were looking great…but then I started running into the spell-centric control decks (like Freeze Mage), and things started to go downhill.

Unlike most Shaman decks, Freeze Shaman has no way to put pressure on the enemy hero outside of Bloodlust or the new Snowfury Giant. This means that, while they can eventually chip down most Midrange or Aggressive decks, Freeze Shaman has a lot of trouble against any kind of Control deck, which is what 90% of players appear to be running at the moment.

As a result, Freeze Shaman is an unpredictable deck to play at the moment. Once the meta settles, it could actually be worth playing, but for now, it’s best left to the casuals.

The Upsides: Very strong against Aggressive and Midrange decks, as it can stall and clear enemy boards for a very long time.

The Downsides: Very weak against Control decks, as it has no way to threaten lethal.

The Interesting: In one game against a Death Knight Paladin, I stole his Tirion twice with Moorabi before turning it into a Frog. I won the game a couple turns later.

 

Discard Warlock

Back in Journey to Un’Goro, I attempted to make a Discard Warlock—but it failed, miserably. With Knights of the Frozen Throne, however, I decided to give the archetype another go (a decision that was perhaps influenced a bit by the fact that I pulled Blood Queen Lana’thel from one of my preorder packs), and it actually worked out pretty well.

Discard Warlock has always had some trouble clearing enemy minions, but thanks to the presence of new cards like Defile and the Despicable Dreadlord, I found it a lot easier to maintain control of the board. As for Blood Queen Lana’thel, she turned out to be surprisingly good in any matchup against Aggressive or Midrange decks, as she almost always healed my hero for 6-10 health before getting killed.

Unfortunately, Discard Warlock is still pretty bad against Control decks, but even these matches are winnable thanks to the endless value of Lord Jaraxxus and the Nether Portal. As a result, the deck actually did pretty well overall, and helped me to climb several steps up the ladder.

The Upsides: Very strong against Aggressive and Midrange decks, as it has several strong Taunt minions and some powerful healing in the midgame.

The Downsides: Somewhat weak against Control Decks. In addition, if you get unlucky with Discards, the deck will suddenly become laughably bad.

The Interesting: In one game against a Rogue, I was at 4 health, but then the Rogue used Betrayal on my 7-attack Blood Queen Lana’thel. Lana’thel proceeded to kill off two of my weaker minions and healing me for 14, which put me out of range of the Rogue’s attacks.

 

Enrage Warrior

After playing a game where I discarded my Lord Jaraxxus, Blood Queen Lana’thel and both of my Despicable Dreadlords in a single turn, I was feeling pretty angry, so I decided to go play Enrage Warrior. Sadly, I had not opened the new Warrior Hero, Scourgelord Garrosh, but I had collected Rotface (the new Warrior Legendary) and most of the new Enrage-synergy cards, so it wasn’t long before I had made a complete deck.

Thrilled with my new creation, I headed into ranked—and things did not go well. My early game minions were often too weak to contest the board against my foe’s plays, so I was never able to get a large enough board to take advantage of powerful Midrange minions like the Dark Revenant. Then, in the late-game, I attempted to use Rotface to gain tempo, but in most cases, he failed to really accomplish anything.

It should be noted, however, that I do not own either Scourgelord Garrosh or the Classic Legendary Grommash Hellscream. As a result, I ran out of plays in the late-game, a situation that could have been rectified by either of these minions. As a result, I don’t want to completely write the deck off—but I will say that if you want to play the deck, you’ll need to be prepared to spend some dust.

The Upsides: Can occasionally beat other Midrange deck. I wouldn’t count on it though.

The Downsides: Loses to pretty much everything.

The Interesting: If you’re somewhat lucky, Rotface can have some very interesting results. For example, there were a few games where I ended up with four or five powerful Legendary minions on the board.

 

Handbuff Paladin

First introduced in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, the Handbuff Paladin Archetype focuses on using cards such as the Grimestreet Enforcer and Smuggling Run to increase the power of its hand. Back in Mean Streets, the archetype was absolute garbage, and any Paladins who attempted to make it work were quickly driven out of town in defeat.

In Un’Goro, the archetype had a couple bright moments, but it was too weak against Aggressive decks such as the omnipresent Pirate Warrior to actually accomplish a whole lot. With the arrival of Knights of the Frozen Throne, however, the meta has—at least temporarily—slowed down quite a bit, which gives Handbuff Paladin a chance to thrive.

Using the classic Handbuff cards mentioned above, along with new cards such as Bolvar, Fireblood and Uther of the Ebon Blade, I brought the deck into standard—and actually had a surprising amount of success. Thanks to the increased power of minions affected by the Handbuffs, the deck performed very well against other Midrange decks. In addition, I also won several games against Aggro decks like Pirate Warrior, as the Lifesteal effects from cards such as the Chillblade Champion or Corpsetaker allowed me to outheal the incoming damage.

As for Control Decks, the matchups are often relatively even. Against most variants of Control, Handbuff Paladin actually performs pretty well, but it really struggles against any type of Control Priest deck, as they have too many ways to Destroy or Silence large minions.

The Upsides: Is very strong against other Midrange decks, and is slightly favored against Aggressive and Control decks.

The Downsides: Is very weak against Control Priest, which is seeing a bit of play in the meta right now.

The Interesting: Prince Keleseth (the 2-mana Legendary who gives all the other minions in your deck +1/+1 if you don’t have any other 2-cost cards) is surprisingly good in this deck. This is because the deck doesn’t normally run any 2-mana cards, so Keleseth can always get his Battlecry off.

 

Evolve Shaman

As noted above, my first attempt to create a viable Shaman deck failed pretty badly. Freeze Shaman, while a fun enough deck to play, just isn’t strong enough in the current meta to overcome everything that is stacked against it. Freeze Shaman isn’t the only Shaman archetype to come out of Knights of the Frozen Throne, however, which is why I turned my attention to Evolve Shaman.

Starting with the new Shaman Hero Card (Thrall, Deathseer) I added as many Evolution synergy cards as I could, such as the Dopplegangster from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and the Saronite Chain Gang from Knights of the Frozen Throne. Finally, I added a pair of Bloodlusts (for the finishing burst), and I headed into Standard to see how it would go.

I started playing around rank 15, and after playing ten or more games, I was still at rank 15. This was due to the fact that Evolve Shaman—while a lot of fun to play if it works out correctly—is incredibly inconsistent. In several of the games I played, I didn’t draw into any of my Evolution cards, and even when I did, I often struggled to develop a board that could be Evolved. As a result, I ended up losing just over half of the games I played, which means that ultimately, the deck was unsuccessful.

It should be noted, however, that a large part of my strugglers were due to terrible draws or bad Evolves. In the games where these random effects actually worked out correctly, I had a lot more success (and a lot of fun). Because of these factors, I wouldn’t completely discount this deck yet, but I also wouldn’t recommend playing it if you solely are interested in climbing the ladder.

The Upsides: Can be very strong if the draws work out, and if you pull off a monster Evolve it’s one of the coolest things in the game.

The Downsides: If the draws or Evolves don’t work out, the deck is incredibly weak, and will lose to nearly everything.

The Interesting: I created all kinds of crazy minions with the evolution effects, and ultimately had a lot of fun.

 

These are the main decks I’ve been playing so far. Most of them aren’t particularly good, but despite that, they’ve all been a lot of fun to play. As a result, I’d highly recommend you play as much Hearthstone as you can in the next week or so, because this is one of the most fun opening week metas I’ve ever played in!

The Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion has nearly arrived, but before it does, I thought I’d write down my thoughts on what I think the meta will become in the next few weeks.

 

Druid

Druid is a class that has had many identities over the years. Back in Classic, the main focus of Druid was around cheating out large minions with mana-ramping cards such as Wild Growth or Innervate. Then, after all the nerfs before Whispers of the Old Gods came out, Druids began experimenting with token decks such as Egg Druid. These token deck worked great up until Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, when the Jade Golem archetype appeared.

Since then, the meta has been about evenly split between Jade Druid and Token Druid, but now, with the arrival of Knights of the Frozen Throne—honestly, I don’t think anything is going to change. From everything that I’ve seen, it looks like we’re going to be heading for a more control-centric meta, a meta that Jade Druid excels against, thanks to its ability to generate insane value over time.

In addition, a lot of the new cards coming in KotFT fit very well into a Token Druid deck (Crypt Lord, Fatespinner and Strongshell Scavenger seem particularly interesting), which should help the deck survive the coming weeks. The new Druid Hero Card (Malfurion the Pestilent) also seems like it could be good in a Token-style deck, but its 7-mana cost may make it a bit too clunky for some of the more streamlined lists.

On the other hand, the Taunt Druid archetype that Blizzard seems to be pushing is unlikely to work well. Despite the power Hadronox (the new Legendary minion) potentially represents, it’s still just a 9-mana 3/7 when you play it, which is very weak in comparison to what a Jade Druid could drop. In addition, a lot of Druid’s most powerful Taunt minions (such as Ancient of War and Druid of the Claw) don’t actually count as Taunt minions, which severely dampens the card’s potential power.

The Decks We Will See: Jade Druid, Token Druid

The Decks We Won’t See: Taunt Druid

Cards to Watch Out For: Strongshell Scavenger, Crypt Lord

Notes: If Jade Druid becomes too common, it’s possible that other decks will start running Skulking Geist, which will cause Jade Druid to become unplayable.

 

Hunter

“If the face goes Taunt, me still go face,” has been the cry of Hunters everywhere ever since Hearthstone launched several years ago. Since then, Blizzard has done everything in its power to push the deck towards a Control archetype, but up until now, nothing they’ve tried has succeeded. With the arrival of Knights of the Frozen Throne, however, it appears that Control Hunter might finally be a thing.

Thanks to cards such as Deathstalker Rexxar and Professor Putricide, Hunter finally has a way to generate value, which is something they’ve always lacked. In addition, they have gained some powerful new board clears (such as the Exploding Bloatbat and Deathstalker Rexxar’s Battlecry), some single-target removal (Toxic Arrow), and even a way to heal (Bloodworm). Will it be enough to push Control Hunter over the edge into the realm of playability? I think it will be.

The Decks We Will See: Control Hunter, Midrange Hunter

The Decks We Won’t See: Face Hunter

Cards to Watch Out For: Deathstalker Rexxar, Professor Putricide, Bloodworm

Notes: Bloodworm is very interesting in this deck, because while it isn’t strictly a Hunter Card, it is a Beast, which means that Hunters could use cards like Houndmaster to transform it into a genuinely powerful way to heal themselves.

 

Mage

In the recent Journey to Un’Goro expansion, Mage was given two new archetypes to play with: Elemental Mage and Quest Mage. Both failed miserably at the time, but now, thanks to Knights of the Frozen Throne, it appears that they might have received a second chance at viability.

The new Mage Hero Card, Frost Lich Jaina, causes all your Elementals to gain Lifesteal. Now, at first, this might sound somewhat underpowered, but you have to remember that Mage is a class without any natural way to heal in the Standard Format. With Frost Lich Jaina, however, suddenly, every Elemental represents a few points of healing, which is something that cannot be overstated.

As for Quest Mage, the vast numbers of new Freeze effects that are being added will buy Mages the time they need to get their Quest complete, at which point they are free to destroy their opponents however they see fit.

As for the other, more common Mage decks (such as Secret Mage and the old Freeze Mage), there’s a good chance that they’ll all survive, as they’re getting a lot of support in the upcoming expansion. Overall, things are really looking up, which means that it should be a great time to be a Mage.

The Decks We Will See: Elemental Mage, Quest Mage, Secret Mage, Freeze Mage.

The Decks We Won’t See: Mech Mage, because it doesn’t exist anymore.

Cards to Watch Out For: Frost Lich Jaina

Notes: Sindragosa (the new Mage Legendary) seems interesting, but it’s unlikely to see a lot of play, as it doesn’t really fit into any of the currently established archetypes.

 

Paladin

In the days before Journey to Un’Goro, Paladin was a dumpster-tier class. The handbuff mechanic introduced in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan had utterly failed, and the old Control Paladin archetypes were useless against the dangers of Pirate Warrior. With the arrival of JUG, however, Paladin’s fortunes were completely reversed thanks to the addition of powerful cards such as Sunkeeper Tarim, Spikeridged Steed and Vinecleaver. Now, Paladin is one of the top decks in the game, and this will not change in Knights of the Frozen Throne.

Uther of the Ebon Blade (the new Hero Card for Paladin) is one of—if not the—strongest Hero Card coming to the game, as it makes decks such as Control Paladin and Midrange Paladin even harder to kill. Meanwhile, Paladins are receiving a host of new Divine Shield minions (including Bolvar, Fireblood, the new Legendary), which should make their ability to control a board even stronger than before.

As for Aggro Paladin, there are a lot of people who believe that these decks are going to become even stronger. I would heartily disagree, however, as I think the meta is going to become such that Aggressive Paladins have trouble maintaining a board. Without the reach that decks such as Pirate Hunter or Face Shaman have, Paladins won’t be able to close out games, and they’ll lose a lot more games than they win.

The Decks We Will See: Control Paladin, Divine Shield Paladin

The Decks We Won’t See: Aggro Paladin, Murloc Paladin

Cards to Watch Out For: Uther of the Ebon Blade, Blackguard

Notes: A lot of people don’t think Bolvar, Fireblood will amount to anything, but I don’t think it can be written off quite yet, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it ends up being one of the best cards in Paladin.

 

Priest

While Priests are supposed to be associated with healing, they have always had a knack for stealing their opponents’ cards, a skill that has been turned up to 11 in Knights of the Frozen Throne. With cards such as Devour Mind, Embrace Darkness and Archbisop Benedictus, Priests are able to rob their opponents of more cards than ever before.

At first glance, this might not seem like a good thing, but then you have to remember the power level of the cards we’re going to be looking at. Knights of the Frozen Throne is bringing a large number incredibly strong cards (including the Hero Cards) to the table, all of which Priests would be glad to get their hands on. As a result, a lot of these theft cards (especially Devour Mind) seem like they might actually make a pretty large difference in the meta to come.

In addition, the new Priest Hero Card, Shadowreaper Anduin, is exactly what the Shadow Priest decks have always been looking for. Providing a way to control the board that was previously difficult to obtain in Shadow Priest, this card could make the low-tier deck actually viable.

The Decks We Will See: Control Priest, Steal Priest, Shadow Priest

The Decks We Won’t See: Dragon Priest

Cards to Watch Out For: Shadowreaper Anduin, Devour Mind

Notes: A lot of people are predicting that Priest will be the best class in the upcoming, and honestly, I think they might be right.

 

Rogue

For the past several expansions, Rogue has been suffering a bit of an identity crisis. Unlike most of the other classes, Rogue hasn’t had a solidifying theme in years, and while Quest Rogue was a decent deck, it sprang out of a single Rogue card from Un’Goro, and only used one or two others. In Knights of the Frozen Throne, this unfortunate trend appears to have been stopped, as Rogues got a lot of cards dealing with weapons.

With the Shadowblade (a new weapon), Leeching Poison (a weapon modifier) Doomerang (a Spell that uses your equipped weapon to take out minions) and even more, it appears that Rogue is heavily invested in a weapon archetype…which is unfortunate, because weapon decks have never worked out well.

As long as cards such as the Acidic Swamp Ooze exist, weapons are going to get destroyed, no matter how much you buff them. As a result, a weapon-based Rogue deck is simply too difficult to make much use of, so many of these cards will likely be pointless.

That doesn’t mean that Rogue is completely useless, however, as they got some very powerful cards in the form of their Hero Card (Valeera the Hollow) and their Legendary Minion (Lilian Voss). Both cards work very well in a Spell-centric Miracle deck, which could turn out to be very good in the upcoming meta. As a result, Rogue shouldn’t be written off quite yet, though I wouldn’t advise putting too much faith in them in the first few weeks.

The Decks We Will See: Miracle Rogue

The Decks We Won’t See: Weapon Rogue

Cards to Watch Out For: Valeera the Hollow, Lilian Voss

Notes: The cards from Un’Goro that generate the 1-mana Razorleaf Spells synergize very well with Lilian Voss, as they provide lots of Spells for her to transform.

 

Shaman

Shamans are well known as the masters of the Elements, and so in Journey to Un’Goro, they got lots of Elementals. Unfortunately, the Elemental Tribe turned out to be useless, so Shaman was kind of out of luck. Learning from their mistakes, the Hearthstone Team completely abandoned the Elemental Tribe for Knights of the Frozen Throne, and instead focused around Freeze Effects.

From minions that freeze others (like the Brrrloc and the Voodoo Hexxer) to spells that freeze minions and buff them (Cryostasis) to minions that add frozen minions to your hand (Moorabi), Shaman is getting a lot of Freeze effects. Despite all these new cards, however, one question still remains: is Freeze Shaman good? Honestly, I have to say no.

In-and-of-itself, the deck isn’t bad, but there are way too many cards that have a very weak statline to compensate for their ability to Freeze. This just isn’t good enough (generally speaking), and when the deck’s new Legendary minion is a 6-mana 4/4, you know you’re in trouble.

On the other hand, the new Hero Card (Thrall, Deathseer) actually looks pretty good, and it will likely be a staple in many of the Evolve Shaman decks (which are actually quite prevalent). As a result, Shaman isn’t completely dead yet—but they didn’t do too well in this set either.

The Decks We Will See: Evolve Shaman

The Decks We Won’t See: Freeze Shaman, Evolution Shaman

Cards to Watch Out For: Thrall, Deathseer

Notes: In addition to Thrall, Deathseer, Evolve Shaman got several new cards that support the archetype, such as the Saronite Chain Gang, a pair of 4-mana 2/3 Taunts that turn into 6-mana minions when Thrall, Deathseer Evolves them.

 

Warlock

For the longest time, Warlock was king. If it wasn’t Handlock destroying enemy boards, it was Zoolock flooding them or Renolock healing out of their range. Things were good for Gul’dan—but then, the Year of the Mammoth arrived. Many of Warlock’s best cards rotated out, and in exchange, they got the Discard mechanic…which is absolutely terrible.

The Legendary minion and Quest from Un’Goro were both unplayable during the Journey to Un’Goro meta. With the arrival of Knights of the Frozen Throne, however, the time has come to see if Discard will actually be a viable strategy. To be honest, I highly doubt it, but time will tell.

In the meantime, Warlocks actually got a very good Hero Card. Bloodreaver Gul’dan (which resummons all the Demons that died this game) is a very strong card for rebuilding a fallen board state, and it also has a lot of tools dedicated to keeping the Warlock alive. In addition, Warlocks got one of the most powerful AOE spells in the game (Defile), which means that Gul’dan might actually regain a semblance of his former power in the upcoming patch.

The Decks We Will See: Control Warlock

The Decks We Won’t See: Discard Warlock

Cards to Watch Out For: Bloodreaver Gul’dan

Notes: The Despicable Dreadlord is also a very strong new card, and since it’s a Demon, it synergizes well with the new Hero Card.

 

Warrior

“Aaargh, I’m in charge now,” is the cry of the Pirate Warrior, as they send Patches the Pirate in to claim yet another victory. Ever since the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, Pirate Warriors have been dominating the meta—but now, in the frozen wastes of Northrend, things might finally turn around.

In Knights of the Frozen Throne, Warrior didn’t get a single aggressive card. Instead, they got lots of cards relating to damaging their own minions, including their Legendary, Rotface. Even their Hero Card, Scourgelord Garrosh synergizes very well in an Enrage Warrior deck like this, as his hero power deals one damage to all minions. As a result, Enrage Warrior might finally be a deck worth exploring.

In addition, it appears that the old Control Warrior may be making a return, thanks to cards such as Dead Man’s Hand, which provides Warrior with a lot more resources than they’d normally have access to. Overall, however, it’s hard to say for sure, so it will most likely be some time until Control Warrior’s place in the meta is fully realized.

The Decks We Will See: Enrage Warrior, Control Warrior

The Decks We Won’t See: Pirate Warrior (Hopefully!)

Cards to Watch Out For: Scourgelord Garrosh

Notes: Despite the meta being completely against Pirate Warrior, there’s honestly a good chance that it will make a comeback simply because it’s so solid.