Caverns of Time and the Future of Hearthstone
The first direct-to-Wild Hearthstone expansion, Caverns of Time, is being released today alongside the next Battleground season. Caverns of Time took 113 cards from the past and gave them a rework, but it also contains 34 new cards. Among them is a particularly interesting entry that hints at the future of Hearthstone design: Runi, Time Explorer.
Her Battlecry explicitly references cards from the future, specifically seven locations: Outskirts of Lordaeron, Wind Rider Roost, Xenedar, The Nighthold, Valdrakken, Ruins of Korune, and Temple of Earth. Astute World of Warcraft fans will recognize these locations, which might hint at future expansion themes if these cards are released for real one day. But my first question was “what classes would these best fit in?” So that’s what I’m here to discuss. Then I’ll probably play Wild or Twist shortly thereafter. Time is of the essence!
These images were provided courtesy of @RidiculousHat from the Hearthstone team. I initially did some of my own mock-ups using HearthCards (a great tool for custom card creation) and my own screenshots. Note that these cards all have the Paladin class frame, but I don’t believe they will all be Paladin locations (possibly even the one that calls out Paladin Secrets specifically).
Outskirts of Lordaeron
“Choose a minion. Destroy all minions with less Attack than it.” Not every class gets widescale board wipes like this, but that is not the only factor in this design. The other aspect is that this card cares about having a large minion on board and destroying all weaker minions. Priest has conditional board wipes that care about specific attack thresholds, namely Shadow Words Forbid, Horror, and Ruin, Agaisnt All Odds, Clean the Scene, and Shadowreaper Anduin.
However, I want to point out that Enter the Coliseum (recently reduced to 3 mana in Caverns of Time) also destroys all the smallest minions on the board. Paladin has more ways to buff minions’ attack than Priest does, which would be a good synergy component to allow you to target a higher attack threshold or buff some of your minions out of range of this location’s effect.
Most signs still point to Priest, with single-target removal that destroys smaller/weaker minions. That would be the safe bet, but there’s definitely a case to be made that Outskirts of Lordaeron could be a Paladin location.
Wind Rider Roost
“Summon a random 3-Cost minion. Give it Charge.” The obvious choice here is Warrior, which is the class most associated with the Charge mechanic. However, this would be a boon to any aggressive class. Hearthstone is very hesitant to print Charge cards with good reason, as they represent an often uninteractive way to win the game without requiring building a board presence. Leeroy Jenkins was effectively a neutral Fireball back in the old days, but it could be copied or buffed.
Summoning random minions itself is not associated with any particular class, there are many effects throughout the history of the game that summon a random minion. Most of them have a rider that restricts the effect, for example the classic Piloted Shredder summons a 2-Cost minion. The fact that this summons a 3-Cost minion gives us no real hint at what class this would fit in. However, some classes like Hunter and Demon Hunter typically summon minions from a specific tribe (Beast and Demon, respectively), but that’s not enough of an argument to count them out.
Occam’s Razor says Warrior is the safe bet here, but I do like to overthink things.
Xenedar
“Your next Battlecry this turn triggers twice.” Battlecries are central to Hearthstone, and while every class has them, very few classes synergize with them as a mechanic. In fact, it’s basically just Shaman, though Rogue tries (Spirit of the Shark, though it also doubles Combos). Bolner Hammerbeak, Brilliant Macaw, and Shudderwock are the most notorious synergy pieces, but the battlecry support goes deep. I mean, Shaman has Blazing Invocation, which explicitly discovers a battlecry minion. I’ll leave you with Corrupt the Waters and Murmuring Elemental and call it a day. This is a Shaman location through-and-through.
The Nighthold
“Cast three random Paladin Secrets.” Obviously this could be a Paladin card, and in the past Paladin got a fair amount of Secret support (Hydrologist, Mysterious Blade, Commander Rhyssa, Mysterious Challenger). In the current Standard rotation Paladin has been usurped by Rogue as the third Secret-related class (alongside mainstays Hunter and Mage). Interestingly, Rogue also likes to play cards from other classes. I don’t think Rogue wants a card as specific as this, especially since it prefers to benefit from casting cards from outside its deck and class (these Secrets wouldn’t be copied by Tess Greymane, for example). No Shadowjeweler Hanar synergy, even.
I don’t want to dismiss this as an open-and-shut case, but Occam’s Razor dictates that this would be a Paladin card. However, it also means that the design team would have to bring Secret synergy back to Paladin in standard. That could definitely happen, especially when the first expansion of the year can be bolstered by the Core set rotation.
Valdrakken
“Get two random Dragons with +2/+2.” Paladin and Priest are the two classes with the most Dragons and reasonable Dragon synergy. Warrior is the class with the third-most Dragons. Of these, Paladin and Warrior also like to buff minions in-hand. If this location is part of a Dragon-focused expansion where every class gets Dragons (like Blackrock Mountain, Descent of Dragons, or the Galakrond’s Awakening mini-set) then this could fit with classes that generate minions and/or like to buff things in-hand. Hunter and Warrior both excel at this intersection of mechanics.
This is the most open-ended of the locations because the mechanics involved are in some ways very generic. Card generation and handbuff have expanded past their initial iterations to become core components of Hearthstone. Handbuffs aren’t technically restricted to the Grimestreet Goons classes (Hunter, Paladin, and Warrior) anymore, though most new iterations have a rider that restricts which minions get the buffs.
Even so, Hunter, Paladin, and Warrior are the frontrunners, with Priest being a strong contender mainly based on Dragon synergy. I would enjoy a new Dragon-focused set (potentially based around Dragonflight), so maybe we’ll get one in the near future. Final verdict time. Valdrakken in a Dragon-focused expansion: Warrior followed by Hunter and Paladin. Anywhere else: Paladin followed by Priest and Warrior.
Ruins of Korune
“Draw 2 cards. Swap their Costs.” There are no existing cards that can swap costs unrestricted like this, but Mage is the most likely to do it. Vast Wisdon and Balinda Stonehearth have very restricted swap conditions, and both only deal with spells. Vast Wisdom swaps two cheap spells with each other, and Balinda swaps the spell’s costs with her Attack and Health (which are both 5). Paladin has Prismatic Lens which is less restrictive as it swaps a spell and minion’s costs.
I want to look at cost reduction effects, which still leaves Mage as a strong contender but brings Demon Hunter, Druid, Priest, and maybe Rogue into the discussion. Demon Hunter, Druid, and Rogue are also the classes most associated with raw card draw. Priest prefers to generate cards but can reduce the cost of its cards in a variety of ways, though the subsets are often restricted. Druid has some synergy with high-cost spells, as does Mage, and Druid does like to reduce the costs of cards, though mostly minions and Beasts in particular. DH, Rogue, and Priest have ways to reduce the cost of all cards in their hands or any card they’ve drawn.
Overall, the most likely candidate is still Mage, but I think you could make a case for Demon Hunter, Druid, or Rogue. To really capitalize on this effect you want to have a variety of card costs in your deck, but this is a self-correcting issue because such a deck could draw two high-cost cards or two low-cost cards from this location. If you need raw card draw when playing Runi, this is a decent location to choose, but don’t expect every draw to be highlight-worthy.
Temple of Earth
“Choose a friendly minion. Summon a copy of it with +3 Health and Taunt that can’t attack.” At first blush, this is similar to the recently released Forge of Wills in Warlock, which is often used in combination with a minion that has Taunt and can’t attack: Imposing Anubisath. Priest can copy minions (Power Word: Replicate, Psyche Split), and even summon copies with Taunt (see Boon of the Ascended). Priest is one of the few classes that plays well with minions that can’t attack since they can employ silence effects to circumvent that downside. The other class is Shaman, which can Evolve minions, though Shaman also does dabble in copy effects (Eureka!, Muckmorpher). Druid copies minions in a variety of ways, including via battlecries (Gloop Sprayer), static abilities (Oracle of Elune, Ixlid, Plaguemaw), and spells (Germination).
Druid and Warrior have the most synergy with the Taunt mechanic, while Paladin has a lot of Taunt minions and buffs that grant Taunt. Druid, Paladin, and Priest have the most health-heavy stat buffs. All factors considered, this seems like a Priest or Druid location.
This has an interesting application with Titan and Colossal minions, quite a strong interaction. I think it’ll be a little while before we see Temple of Earth printed into standard. Likely after Titans have rotated out. Maybe we’ll see a Cataclysm-related expansion in the future, I’d love to explore more of that lore in Hearthstone.
A Sight of the Future
It is relevant to bring Magic: the Gathering into the discussion at this time. Magic released a block back in 2006-2007 where time was the major theme. Specifically, the three sets within the block focused on the past, present, and future of Magic. It’s a fascinating and ambitious theme, but I want to talk about specifically the third set: Future Sight. Of the 180 cards in the set, 81 of them were considered “futureshifted,” cards that hinted at future mechanics that could presumably be printed in the future. But not all of them have, and some never will, nor were they necessarily intended to. The set explored potential futures, similar to how their “present” set explored an alternative interpretation of color identities. In fact, only 12* have been released in a non-reprint set:
Aven Mindcensor (Amonkhhet), Bloodshot Trainee (Scars of Mirrodin), Boldwyr Intimidator (Morningtide), Graven Cairns (Shadowmoor), Grinning Ignus (Strixhaven), Horizon Canopy* (Modern Horizons), Mass of Ghouls (Tenth Edition), Mistmeadow Skulk (Shadowmoor), Narcomoeba (Guilds of Ravnica), Nessian Courser (Theros), Phosphorescent Feast (Eventide), Steamflogger Boss (Unstable).
*Horizon Canopy wasn’t actually printed in Modern Horizons, but the set references it by name and the enemy cycle of “Horizon” lands was released in MH1. Many of these cards were released within the next year in the Lorwyn block (Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, Eventide), which means the design team knew they were going to print them at that point. Part of the point here is that you can’t reliably predict what will be released in the far future, even the designers need to make adjustments along the way.
What this means for Runi is that we can’t necessarily expect all seven of these locations to be collectible cards in Hearthstone. But we may be able to glean some information about what the devs have planned for the near future, or at least speculate. Notably, none of these locations use future mechanics/keywords. Secrets could be returning to Paladin’s arsenal, but that would likely mean Rogue Secrets would have to rotate out of standard as well. Charge is a rare keyword to see, and it would likely be restricted to just Wind Rider Roost in that set. More Tauren-related cards is a win in my book. We may get a Dragon-centric expansion in the future, which is not unheard of in Warcraft or Hearthstone. On the contrary, with so many important Dragon characters in the Warcraft universe, it is highly likely.
I’m hoping that we get at least a couple of these sprinkled into the next few years. Locations have been a good innovation in Hearthstone, so I’m glad to see more of them.
