For over a year now, the Even and Odd deck archetypes have dominated the competitive Hearthstone landscape.
This will soon no longer be the case, however, as Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane are being sent to Wild a year early via Hearthstone’s Hall of Fame.
When the next standard rotation takes place for Hearthstone in April, cards from Journey to Un’goro, Knights of the Frozen Throne, and Kobolds and Catacombs won’t be the only ones leaving standard play. According to an announcement made by the Hearthstone team, Genn Greymane and Baku the Mooneater will be leaving standard play a year earlier.
Baku and Genn were both set to have a whole year left in Hearthstone’s standard format, so many players were pretty pessimistic about the year going forward. Baku and Genn are both essential in creating Odd and Even decks, respectively. The Odd and Even deck archetypes have dominated Hearthstone since their release.
Both Baku and Genn operate by forcing players into building decks that contain only Odd or Even cards, respectively. In exchange for building their deck this way, players are rewarded with an upgraded or lower cost version of their Hero Power.
What the team probably didn’t expect is how well certain improved hero powers would perform, and how long they would perform so well. Odd Paladin, Even Paladin, Even Shaman, Odd Warrior, and Odd Rogue all had cards nerfed over the lifespan of Genn and Baku due to being too powerful.
It appears that the team finally decided to echo the cries of the community and offer a permanent solution to the Genn and Baku problem. Hearthstone personality and former Magic the Gathering world champion Brian Kilber recently uploaded a video to Omnislash discussing potential fixes for Genn and Baku, including removing them from standard play. It’s becoming a meme in the community that Kibler is working for the Hearthstone team for free because the team actually seems to implement a number of his suggestions.
The community reaction was overwhelmingly positive with regard to the Genn and Baku ousting. Players also seem excited to watch how the meta will unfold going forward. This rotation is taking away a ton of major cards that shape the Hearthstone meta in a big way. The version of Hearthstone we’re playing at the end of April could feel like an entirely different game compared to what we’ve played for the past year.
