Others found themselves loving the plentiful draw and effective win conditions in every class, with the hilarious exception of Priest. The contrast from Barrens' plodding environment was jarring and players who preferred slower games suddenly found themselves without a home. The power of the game felt pushed to the brink and combo decks built around effects like Stealer of Souls broke some of Hearthstone's most fundamental rules regarding Mana, even without including the Warlock Quest. And that meta was about speed, giant combos, and games ending with players sighing: "Oh, guess I'm dead." This time around, the quest cards defined the meta. Prior quest cycles were much patchier in terms of power, with the notable exception of The Caverns Below, which had to be nerfed twice. Now called Questlines, these cards rewarded their players with bonuses at multiple steps on the way to a final game-shattering reward. Stormwind brought the return of Quests but with a twist. That future arrived with United in Stormwind.
The Barrens meta was heavy on grindy value, but the groundwork was laid for a future world of hyper-efficient card draw and fast kills from hand. Starting with Forged in the Barrens, cards were more aggressively priced than we've seen in the past, with the set not including a single card over 8 Mana.
This year's expansions had to fill the power vacuum left by the Year of the Dragon, but instead of going for more splashy card generation, the approach was instead to push efficiency. Getting rid of crusty old cards and replacing them with new stuff, while also making the game cheaper? We take those. (Flame Imp without Void Walker is like peanut butter minus the jelly, only with more ichor.) Overall, the move was well-received. It was replaced by the free Core set, which was loaded with returning cards from older sets, brand new creations, and some staples that were bafflingly kept around-I'm talking to you, Shadowstep-while other cards that seemed impossible to live without like Shield Block, Savage Roar, and my beloved Voidwalker, got cut. Since we spoke in January 2021, the Classic set was removed from Standard in one of the largest upheavals to the format ever. (Image credit: Blizzard) Alright, let's start with Standard Hours played by mode, according to the 3rd party data app Firestone.
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