Standard has now been out for several months. While it is doing quite well, I find myself missing some things from Wild. Some of my favourite cards were deleted from competitive play. Some elements of gameplay will simply never be the same. Standard is one of the best things to happen to Hearthstone, but that doesn’t mean it was all good. Or at least, it doesn’t mean I can’t miss some things. I’m sure everyone has a few things that they miss most. These are mine.
The Priest Class
I’ll get this one out of the way right off the bat. Everyone knows that the Priest class is in a real bad spot right now. I even wrote an article on The Priest Issue in Hearthstone. I was never the biggest Priest player, but I certainly enjoyed dabbling with it. The extreme control aspect always enticed me. Also, if aggro decks were getting on my nerves, running a full anti-aggro Priest was cathartic!
Unfortunately, now that Lightbomb and Deathlord are gone, Priest is struggling big time. The only variant that remains competitive is Dragon Priest, the least Priest-like version. I am quite sure that they will give Priest a lot of strong cards next expansion to remedy this. The ‘Shaman Treatment’ as it were. However, until then, I will be destined to occasionally look at the Priest class and sigh sadly.
When Hunters Went Face
I know this is a bit of a weird one, but try not to lose me. I’m no lover of face decks, as you are quite well aware if you read my articles. However, I miss when I could see a Hunter and know exactly how the game was going to go. It didn’t matter who ended up winning, I knew they would play a Leper Gnome into a Knife Juggler into Animal Command giving them Huffer. This wasn’t something I enjoyed dealing with, but I knew what I had to save my removal for.
The variety that has hit Hearthstone is amazing. Nearly every class has multiple archetypes that they can run competitively. This is an amazing thing for the game, allowing players to play how they want. That being said, there’s something to be said for knowing your opponent’s deck. Knowing what to keep in the mulligan and what removal you’ll need to save is a dying art. It’s still just as important as ever, but it’s far more difficult when everyone is playing new decks. Variety is awesome, but sometimes I really miss knowing my opponent has a Leper Gnome in his opening hand.
The Sorry Button
This is another thing I’ve talked about before. In fact, I wrote an entire article on it, and while most was parody, some of it was quite true. When bad RNG happens to your opponent, I always considered it polite to say Sorry. Now, there’s simply nothing I can do. Quite often I find myself emoting ‘Wow!’ and hoping my opponent understands that I mean Sorry. Other times I open the emotes, see Sorry isn’t there, and simply close them again.
For someone who doesn’t emote much, Sorry was pretty much the only one I used. I often mute my opponents because so many of them emote repeatedly or rudely. Sorry was one of the few emotes I found to be sincere (even if the voice actors made them all sound vile). Now that it has been removed, I find myself emoting rarely. This is a change I’ve heard many asking to be reverted, and I can say I certainly wish for this as well. I miss saying Sorry!
Antique Healbot
Antique Healbot was one of my favourite cards. It’s not overpowered at all, it is quite balanced in fact. Giving up quite a bit of tempo in order to heal yourself often hurts more than it helps. Knowing when you can play Healbot was important, and its finesse was underrated. It was also one of the best stabilizing tools against aggressive decks.
If you’re playing a midrange deck against aggro, there’s often a point in the game where you almost die. At this point you’ve usually managed to clear their board and it’s down to the last points of damage. Here is where Antique Healbot shines. It doesn’t stabilize the board, but it can certainly help get you out of a bind sometimes. With Healbot gone I find many decks are missing that little healing touch that they need. The new healing effects are fairly bad, with the exception of those for Paladin. Earthen Ring Farseer has grown exponentially in popularity, but it simply isn’t the same. Antique Healbot made many control decks so much better, he will be remembered fondly.
Echo Mage
This is something that not everyone can relate to, but it’s the main thing that I miss from Wild. Echo Mage was one of my favourite decks, and the first guide I ever wrote. Very few considered it to be competitive, which made it so much more fun to climb with. To me, there was nothing better than surprising your opponent with six 8/8s out of nowhere. It was a blast to play, and the emotes that I got were hilarious!
We lost quite a few cards when Standard rolled out. Some archetypes simply ceased to exist entirely. Echo Mage is simply destroyed by losing both Duplicate and Echo of Medivh. It doesn’t help that Molten Giant was nerfed as well, neutering every aspect of the deck. Standard was amazing for the game, but it definitely killed some fun decks along the way. Playing around with Echo Mage and climbing with a deck no one thought possible – that’s the memory I’ll miss most from Wild!