The newest cards added to Hearthstone: Whispers of the Old Ones are either going to be completely ignored by the meta, or blow it away. Each class is getting a Forbidden card, with each effect using all of your available mana. The Paladin, Priest, and Mage Forbidden cards have been revealed and they are super powerful.
Forbidden Shaping may be my favorite card revealed in this set so far. For expending all your mana, you can summon a minion of the same cost. Say you have four mana left and you play this card. Any four-mana minion can be randomly summoned, from Cult Master all the way to Mechanical Yeti . We don’t know if it can summon cards from other classes, or cards that are banned from Standard Format.
Doing the math, it seems that the best cards that can be summoned cost eight mana. Ragnaros the Firelord, Grommash Hellscream and Tirion Fordring are just a few of the most powerful cards in the game that Forbidden Shaping can summon that also cost eight mana. The worst card you can get is Kel’thuzad and he’s not even that bad. Priests don’t usually have a lot of powerful minions; they have spells that buff weaker ones instead. This card should fix that minion weakness, while also making late-game priests a much bigger threat. Imagine having a Sneed’s Old Shredder with Velen’s Chosen . That’s a dangerous combination.
The two other released Forbidden cards are good, but not “summon any minion” good. Forbidden Flame is the Mage card that deals all your available mana in damage to a minion. Mages already have some of the best minion removal in the game, like Frostbolt and Fireball, though using those cards on minions might be deemed wasteful. If may be a good tech against control decks, but I don’t see it blowing up the meta.
Forbidden Healing is a Paladin card that heals double the mana you spent. It is the largest spell heal in the game, with Healing Touch coming in second, healing for just eight health. This card seems more like a “win more” card, which means it doesn’t actually help your win condition. Right now, Paladin is a very aggressive class, using cards like Shielded Minibot and Muster for Battle to get an early board. When Standard comes out, they lose a lot of these powerful cards, so maybe they will become a control deck. Paladin already has plenty of heal though, with Guardian of Kings and even Tuskarr Jouster.
Blizzard has a chance to do some pretty cool things with these cards. No matter what, they will play on curve so nothing will be wasted. Hearthstone is a game all about resource management, knowing when to play specific cards wins you games. Hopefully, Forbidden cards don’t become another useless gimmick like Joust.
If Hunter gets a card that does face damage, there will be no hope for humanity.
