With each new year in Hearthstone, a handful of old cards are sent off to the Hall of Fame. In 2020, five cards are being added to the Hall of Fame; Leeroy Jenkins, Mountain Giant, Mind Control Tech, Acolyte of Pain and Spellbreaker. Leeroy Jenkins is arguably the biggest addition to the Hall of Fame/removal from Standard.
Alec Dawson (Game Designer) said that Leeroy Jenkins is one of Blizzard’s most beloved characters “but his time has come.
“Currently, Leeroy just ends too many games. It’s a lot of face damage in neutral that blurs class identity. By rotating Leeroy into the Hall of Fame, matches can be more varied, ending in different ways.”
Hearthstone Hall of Fame
Dawson said that Mountain Giant has also seen a lot of play in its time and the decks it helps create are some of Blizzards’ favourites. However, it doesn’t want Mountain Giant to be the star of the show and so Blizzard “wants to lean into those decks with different designs.” With Mountain Giant entering the Hall of Fame, space is opened up for new cards to take its place.
Mind Control Tech is a design “that no longer fits with how we want randomness to feel. In Standard it creates a lot of swings and negative feelings.” With its move into the Hall of Fame and into Wild, Blizzard is happy to see that mechanic and design move out of Standard.
According to Dawson, Acolyte of Pain and Spellbreaker “fit into a similar bucket.” He said that Acolyte of Pain is one of the most popular Neutral cards for drawing, however, he added that it makes it very difficult to determine which classes draw lots of cards and which don’t. He also said that “by rotating Acolyte of Pain we’re actually going to be able to make more cards in that vein, but in different and varied ways.”
Spellbreaker is similar to Acolyte of Pain. Its removal will make way for other types of cards that Silence in the future.
With those five cards removed from Standard, the meta in Hearthstone is sure to be shaken up.
Leo Stevenson travelled to Irvine, California as a guest of Blizzard. Travel, accommodation and meals were provided by Blizzard.
