Dominant cards will be sent to the naughty step earlier than expected
Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane are to be moved to Hearthstone’s Hall of Fame a year ahead of schedule. The news was confirmed at a recent Blizzard event attended by geeksplatform.
Typically the cards would naturally migrate from Hearthstone’s Standard format to Wild as part of the April 2020 rotation. Decks built around these cards have proved so dominant over the last 12 months, however, that the designers have decided to exclude them by utilising the Hall of Fame system.
Hall of Fame cards can still be used in the Wild format, but in recent years it’s been a convenient parking spot for Standard cards that have proved to be problematic in terms of game balance and future design options.
That’s certainly proved to be the case with the Odd and Even archetypes enabled by Genn and Baku, and Blizzard clearly doesn’t want them sticking around to spoil the next year of competitive Standard play.
A number of other cards will also be joining these two characters when the newly announced Year of the Dragon kicks off. Some directly support the Odd / Even archetypes and so are natural exclusions, while others are considered problematic in different ways.
Here’s the full list of 2019’s Hall of Fame cards, and our Hall of Fame guide contains more information on how the system works:
- Doomguard – Warlock
- Naturalize – Druid
- Divine Favor – Paladin
- Genn Greymane – Neutral
- Baku the Mooneater – Neutral
- Black Cat – Mage
- Gloom Stag – Druid
- Glitter Moth – Glitter Moth
- Murkspark Eel – Shaman
You can read more about Hearthstone’s next themed year of play by reading our comprehensive Year of the Dragon guide. We’ve also got early impressions of Hearthstone’s upcoming single player content for you as well.
