Introduction
Greetings, dear readers, and welcome to another installment of ”Running Wild”, the article series where I cover just about everything related to the wild format. Life has been pretty crazy lately so I wasn’t able to write as often as I would want to but now things are settling a bit and it is time to get back to work. We’ve just had a recent launch of the latest expansions, Knights of the Frozen Throne, and the standard metagame is slowly forming while the wild metagame remains as unpredictable as ever. Usually, with meta shifts, it takes a bit longer for eternal formats to receive any kind of drastic shift, but at the very least there will almost always be some small additions to a bunch of already existing decks and today we’re going to take a look at the cards that will most likely find a home in some already existing wild decks and, probably next time, we will cover some new decks 🙂
There are A LOT of great new cards that can be used for improving a lot of decks so today we’re going to cover just druid, hunter, mage, paladin and priest. There is simply too many cards for me to cover in one article without falling asleep in front of my laptop. Next time I’ll be covering the remaining few classes along with all the neutral cards which can be used in already existing wild decks. Thank you for your understanding 😀 Also, there are no death knights in this article. Those guys and girls will get a separate article for themselves in a very near future.
With all that out of the way, sit back, relax and let’s just jump into this 🙂
Druid
Before I begin, please take note that a lot of cards that you’ll see here also see play in the standard format. That should be common knowledge by now because if a card can’t make it in the standard format then I’m not sure that it will make it in the wild format unless it has an absolutely insane effect. Also, please note that there won’t be any death knight cards. Those cards will be getting an article of their own at some point during this month 🙂
Grim Necromncer
I didn’t want to start the list with the very obvious card so here is my 2nd pick for a very good improvement of an already existing deck. grim-necromancer fits perfectly into a token druid deck. It is a 4/6 body spread over 3 minions, with the main one being a 2/4 minion. The effect is something that a token druid really loves and that is instant token creation. You play this minion on turn five for 4 and then you play mark-of-the-lotus for 1 and now you have a 3/5 minion and two 2/2 minions on the board. Now, I know that this card is no violet-teacher but it has the benefit of having an immediate effect for 1 less attack and 1 less health. Will it make it into a token druid deck? I’m not sure that it will become a staple of the deck. I did play with it a bit and it was a very good card so I’m expecting it to see some level of play in some variations of the deck. Besides, it is a common so at least crafting it isn’t a problem 🙂
Ultimate Infestation
Yes, I know that everyone who doesn’t play druid is already sick and tired of this card, but that just comes to show how good this card really is. ultimate-infestation is just that, the ultimate 10 mana spell which the druid had needed to completely infest the ladder…at least in the standard format. However, before you hit the panic button, this card will improve every druid deck except egg druid and aggro druid but it will not make the druid as powerful as it currently is in standard simply because there are way more powerful things out there. Also, I don’t believe that this card will ever be nerfed. Yes, it has insane value and it is insanely powerful but that’s kind of the point of the entire thing, to be a very good 10 drop because we’re really missing out on those.
In summary, this card will without a doubt see play in every ramp, midrange and jade druid deck in the wild format. At least one copy will see play in at least one druid deck from this point onward and until the end of time itself (or until the servers are shut down for good). It has the ultimate value, it can heavily swing games in your favor and I would recommend crafting a single copy of it. Don’t run two. The 2nd one is a dead card and it will more often mill you than help you.
Hunter
Hunter got this new bug thing. It seems large and powerful but that is only because the leaf seems big. According to Blizzard, it is a beast type minion, just like almost every other bug minion in the game, and it has a very unique effect. You can’t silence it in any way and it becomes louder and louder with each new expansion. Great card, has a home in every hunter deck out there, but for some reason it has trouble finding a spot on the ladder, just like the class itself.
Mage
Mage, and every class after it, had fared better than the hunter so it has a few cards that could go into improving some already existing decks. Overall the class itself didn’t get much love from Blizzard this time around but I’ve managed to find two cards that I believe will see play in some variations of already existing decks.
Breath of Sindragosa
Now, now, before you call me a noob because this card is bad, I’ve put it here because I believe that this card might see play, some day, in some variation of tempo mage. The problem with tempo mage is that it already has a powerful 1 cost spell in the form of arcane-blast and I don’t see it replacing it any time soon. However, you won’t just go and waste your arcane-blast on a 2 health minion unless you really, really, need that minion to die. breath-of-sindragosa could see play as that 1 cost card that can freeze a bigger minion or kill a smaller minion in the early game. I personally use my arcane-blast only when it can deal at least 4 damage. This card is like flamecannon but weaker. I’m really on the fence with this one. I want it to see play, I see that it might be a good card as a single copy, but I’m not sure will it ever be good enough to see any play. Anyways, at least consider it an honorable mention 🙂
Simulacrum
I wasn’t too excited about the previous card but I’m very excited about this one. simulacrum is something that might just see some actual play! I can see it finding a home in some weird combo deck that might come down the line but we’re not talking about the cards that have a potential to be great at some point in the distant future. No, we’re talking about cards that are great now and simulacrum fits perfectly into a giants mage deck! There is one thing that giants mage loves more than anything else and that is getting more giants via cards like echo-of-medivh and molten-reflection. Now simulacrum joins that group as another way of getting extra giants. I’m not sure how many of you are playing giants mage but those who are, please tell me are you happy with this card? I would love to hear from you 🙂
Paladin
Paladin is one of those classes that were always in the middle in the wild format. One might call them the jack of all trades class. The have all types of decks: control, combo, aggro, tempo and midrange, but only one of them, secret paladin, is a tier 1 deck. The rest is just tier 2 or tier 3 but even that is ok. Jack of all trades, master of one, in this case 😛
Righteous Protector
righteous-protector is my top card from the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion, at least for standard. It is a far superior version of argent-squire that finds a home in every paladin deck because you just want to have this card either for the purpose of stopping early aggro or for the purpose of being the early aggressor. I did listen to some streamers and pro players talk about this card as being not so good in aggro but great in control and I honestly disagree. Would you put argent-squire in your aggro paladin deck? You would? Great, then there is absolutely no reason why you wouldn’t want to put righteous-protector in it as well or instead because it is simply a better version of the card.
I’ve been playing with this card a lot and I see some potential for an aggressive divine shield paladin deck. You have righteous-protector and argent-squire as your divine shield 1 drop minions, shielded-minibot and annoy-o-tron for your 2 drops, wickerflame-burnbristle and argent-horserider for your 3 drops and corpsetaker for your 4 drop. Wow, that is a lot of divine shield minions and, more than that, you’ve actually got a taunter in every minion slot from 1 to 4! I mean, it might not be something to write home about but it might be a deck worth checking out! 🙂
Corpsetaker
Winter is here, b0ys, and it has brought a very powerful minion along with it. corpsetaker is an amazing neutral 4 drop which had instantly found a home in various paladin decks in the standard format. But what about wild? Is it any good in wild? Well, yes, it is and there are two classes that can take full advantage of this card; paladin and shaman.
If you run corpsetaker in a paladin deck then you’re most likely to get divine shield, taunt and lifesteal, mostly thanks to wickerflame-burnbristle. This is where you’re going to see most, if not all,  corpsetakers in the standard format. Most of the time you can guarantee that this card will have divine shield and taunt. Is a 4 mana 3/3 epic minion with divine shield, taunt and sometimes lifesteal good enough to find a home in a wild paladin deck of any kind? Yes, yes it is.
If you run  corpsetaker in a shaman deck then you’re most likely going to get taunt unless you have  alakir-the-windlord in your deck. If you do have it in your deck then you’re going to get divine shield, taunt and windfury instead of lifesteal. What remains to be answered is would you profit more from lifesteal or from windfury? Honestly, it really depends on the class. Paladin doesn’t want windfury on this minion because the keyword itself does very little in the class. Paladin is often the defensive class so it values survival way above aggression. Shaman, however, would love to have windfury. Unlike paladin, shaman is a more offensive class which values aggression more than survival. Also, unlike paladin, shaman has better ways of buffing its creatures so a buffed 4 drop with windfury is valued a lot more than a buffed 4 drop with lifesteal. Also, one last thing to note is that while paladin is crawling with 4 drops, shaman barely has any, so it is easier to fit  corpsetaker into shaman.
Priest
Now we’ve reached the halfway point and we’re going to wrap this up with the priest class. Just like druid, mage and paladin, priest got 2 cards that can improve his decks and one of them is something really special. Without further a due, here are the cards 🙂
Obsidian Statue
The first one is a no brainer for me. obsidian-statue is a perfect card for a deathrattle priest deck. The fact that this card actually has taunt is amazing! Now you have an additional taunter to bring back with your nzoth-the-corruptor. Imagine this: You’re playing two copies of deathlord, two copies of sludge-beclher and two copies of obsidian-statue. Since damage prevented = healing, you’ve just brought back 42 points of health 😛 and you get at least additional 8 health which means that you got 50 points of health 😛 great value, amazing card 😀
Archbishop Benedictus
What? Am I seriously putting archbishop-benedictus on this list? Am I drunk? Well, no, I’m not drunk and yes, I did actually put it on this list but before you call me a noob and hang me, please listen to me. Please, this card is amazing. This card provides you with value that no other card can provide you with. Well, some can but not like this. This is the ultimate, most powerful priest card in the entire game. This card servers one purpose and one purpose only…IT CAN STEAL BOSS DECKS IN ADVENTURES!!!
Yes, now you can actually go and redo your wild adventures and you can steal boss decks with this card. It is amazing! I absolutely love this card to no end because of that one thing 😀 Tired of a boss that has an overpowered and unfair deck while your priest deck is too weak? No problem, just steal his entire deck 🙂 It is the best way to play this card, trust me, it is worth the dust if you want to make something completely crazy 😀
Conclusion
We’ve reached the end of this article and the end of the first part of the two part card rundown. There is simply too many cards to put into one article, which is really good because it means that this expansion actually gave us a lot of toys to put into our decks 🙂 Next time, the article after this one or the one after the one after this one, we’re going to take a look at the remaining classes and the neutrals. Another thing that I want to write about are the death knights so the next article might be about them.
So, what cards do you plan on using or are already using in your wild decks? Are there any cards that you would want to add to this list? Let me know in the comments below. s always  if you’ve liked this article do consider following me on twitter https://twitter.com/Eternal_HS. There you can ask me all sorts of Hearthstone questions (unrelated to this article) and I’ll gladly answer them as best as I can!
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One more thing before I leave! I know that I’ve been away for the last couple of weeks and I like to thing that there are those who love reading my articles. I would just want to say sorry for being away for so long, I’ve just had some major changes in my life (those who follow me on twitter know about it. This is not a place for such topics) but now I’ve settled down once again and I’m ready to bring you more and more articles 🙂 I’ve you stuck around for this long, thank you and I hope that you will enjoy the upcoming articles 😀
