The new Hearthstone year, Year of the Phoenix, has been announced, and with that comes a new rotation. Hearthstone is about to go through some major changes, but one thing we’ve gotten used to at this point is rotations. The new set, Ashes of Outlands, will be releasing on April 7th with a brand-new class – Demon Hunter. While that is some incredibly exciting news everyone is already covering it and I felt it was necessary to instead cover some decks that help you get started in the Year of the Phoenix. What better way to save up dust for those new shiny Demon Hunter cards than to play rotation proof decks? The Year of the Raven has some excellent cards that will be rotating out of Standard soon but don’t fret! If you stick to these lists, you will have plenty of great decks to boost you into the new Hearthstone year and beyond. The power level of the new cards will have to be very high to overshadow what was done in the Year of the Dragon. Without further ado, let’s look at some rotation proof lists to keep you climbing the ladder.
Druid
Embiggen Druid had some experimentation before the release of Galakrond’s Awakening but it didn’t really take off until Winged Guardian (leviosa) was released during the first week of the adventure. This deck relies on playing early Embiggens to make huge minions and ramping with Breath of Dragons to offset the cost increase. The deck loses some tools such as Witching Hour and Ferocious Howl, but the core of the deck remains intact. The early days of the meta are sure to see plenty of aggressive decks that take advantage of experimentation. Running a list like this has the potential to shut those strategies out of the game.
Decklist:
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Hunter
Dragon Hunter has become a force to be reckoned with on ladder. The release of Rotnest Drake at the end of Galakrond’s Awakening cemented it as the go-to aggressive build for Hunter. When rotation comes for the Year of the Phoenix, Dragon Hunter will lose almost nothing. This puts it in a great position to take advantage of an unstable meta in the first few days. It even has the potential to continue being a top tier deck beyond the release of Ashes of Outland. Let’s take a look at what a rotation proof Dragon Hunter list would look like.
Decklist:
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Mage
Mage’s only competitive archetype at the moment is Highlander Mage. Rotation will bring the lose of many of the deck's tools, including cards like Luna’s Pocket Galaxy, Stargazer Luna, and Zilliax, SN1P-SN4P, and Book of Specters. The highroll potential of the deck will be gone, and it’s hard to say if it will be able to remain a force in the meta post-rotation. For now, it doesn’t look like there are any great options to adapt the deck for rotation. It’s best to just wait and see what develops for our friend Jaina.
Decklist: Hold off for now and revisit 2 weeks post-rotation.
Paladin
The most popular Paladin decks at the moment are Mech Paladin and Holy Wrath Paladin, both being completely gutted by rotation. Descent of Dragons tried to push Pure Paladin as a new archetype but for now, it hasn’t been very reliable. The only viable option for Paladin in a post rotation meta would be a completely new deck to rise from the Ashes of Outland in the Year of the Phoenix. It’s still very early in the reveal cycle and we haven’t seen much of what is planned yet. We can only hope the Uther will have something creative to do in the coming months.
Decklist: You’re better off just waiting for rotation…
Priest
Priest is getting a complete rework in the Year of the Phoenix. Gone are the days of Combo Priest and Playing Northshire Cleric in every deck that plays 1 drops. Shadow Word: Pain is being removed while Shodow Word: Death is being reduced by 1 mana. Shadow Word: Ruin is a new 4 mana board clear that hits everything over 5 attack, and the reduction of Holy Nova from 5 to 4 mana is a significant boon for the class. Res Priest loses some of its current tools, including Zerek’s Cloning Gallery, Zilliax, and Mass Hysteria, but these loses could be made up by some of the new Priest cards introduced to fill glaring holes in the basic card set. While nothing can really replace Zerek’s Cloning Gallery, it is possible to bring Res Priest along for the ride in the new Hearthstone Year. Let’s see what that would look like.
Decklist:
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Rogue
Galakrond Rogue loses very little with rotation. It’s currently one of the best decks in the game and is poised to hold its position as a top tier deck in the coming months. All the big players for this deck, the Galakrond package, King Togwaggle, and lackey generators will remain in standard upon rotation. The biggest hit to the deck comes in the form of Leeroy Jenkins who will be rotating to the Hall of Fame. If you can’t stand to play the deck without that burst potential, you can go ahead and replace Leeroy with Reckless Rocketeer. While not as good in the slot, she can still provide nearly the same amount of burst for 1 additional mana, and it saves you from spending dust on crafting a suitable replacement.
Decklist:
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Shaman
The best Shaman decks to play right now are Aggro Overload and Quest Shaman. Both of these decks lose key components to rotation making them poor candidates for building rotation safe lists If you must build a Shaman deck, I would suggest a Quest Galakrond build. The Lifedrinker in the list will rotate out, but with any luck we could see a suitable replacement..
Decklist:
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Warlock
Warlock has had its ups and downs in the current meta, but what we know for sure right now is there are no good rotation proof decks for the class. For now, we can focus on a zoo style deck with a Galakrond core. It may not be top tier, but it includes cards that many players already have in their collections and, just like all decks in this article, is meant to be playable after rotation without investing a great deal of dust.
Decklist:
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Warrior
Galakrond Warrior is yet another of the Galakrond decks on this list, showing just how powerful the package can be in several classes. There are a few different builds of this archetype so it’s tough to tell which will be the best in the upcoming meta, but for now we will talk about one with a lower dust cost than others.
Decklist:
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Demon Hunter
We have no idea what will come to the game with the release of Demon Hunter, but it’s been described as an aggressive class. This could work well in a fresh meta since these kinds of strategies tend to do well in the first few weeks while things are still unstable. The revealed card pool is very small right now, but we know some of the cards coming out for this class. Forget about Face Hunter, meet Face Demon-Hunter.
Decklist:
Thanks for checking out the decks, and I’ll see you on the ladder.
-BitBeaker
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