Hearthstone‘s Forged in the Barrens expansion is quickly proving to be one of the game’s best in years. We’ve already talked about some of the great decks you can build thanks to the expansion’s new cards, but today, we’re going to focus on those cards themselves.
It’s always risky to advise Hearthstone players to spend their dust on a new card right away, but after a little time with Forged in the Barrens, it’s becoming clear that there are a few incredible new additions to Hearthstone‘s ever-expanding card library that you simply need to have.
Some of these cards are good right away and some will almost certainly be valuable in the coming months, but they’re all Forged in the Barrens cards that you should consider crafting if you want to stay competitive.
Sword of the Fallen
Everyone guessed that this card was going to be pretty good when it was revealed, and it has certainly lived up to expectations so far.
This card gives Paladin the cheap draw system the class sometimes needs, obviously works great with Secret decks, and is honestly surprisingly useful in its own right as a standalone weapon. It’s so good that it basically forces you to put Paladin Secrets in more decks because it just makes those decks so much more viable than they’d otherwise be.
Cannonmaster Smythe
As long as you’re putting secrets in more Paladin decks, you might as well consider running one of the best new cards in the Forged in the Barrens set.
Cannonmaster Smythe’s biggest weaknesses (mass silence cards, mostly) aren’t really being played right now, so there is really no great way to respond to the powerful (and annoying) turns this card creates. It allows you to dictate the pace of the game, which is absolutely what you’re trying to do with Secret-based decks in the first place.
Xyrella
Xyrella is one of those cards that is pretty good at the moment but really shines when you consider the fact that it’s only going to get better as time goes on.
Even a low-impact Xyrella that only deals a couple of points of damage when played is pretty good. What’s really impressive, though, is that it’s very easy to generate insane swing turns with this card despite the fact that there aren’t even that many great cards that support its ability at the moment. As the Priest class grows, this one is going to become even more essential.
Rogue is pretty ridiculous at the moment for a variety of reasons, but if you’re looking for a Rogue card that will likely be good for quite some time, then you’re probably looking for Field Contact.
Field Contact just works so well with so many of the things that most Rogue decks want to do. You can build a deck around it (as many top players already are), but even players that only expect to trigger its ability once or twice are probably going to love how this card fits into so many builds.
Tamsin Roame
There are a ton of great Warlock cards at the moment, but if you’re wondering which of the more expensive ones are worth crafting, then I’ve got to highlight Tamsin Roame.
The thing you need to know about this card is that it’s incredibly easy to trigger its effect multiple times a turn. More importantly, all of the free copies you get out of this card are for spells that you absolutely want as many copies of as possible in your deck. Honestly, this is one of the best control cards in the new expansion.
Refreshing Spring Water
Once again, we have a card that most people thought was going to be a problem from the moment it was revealed. Sometimes, it’s not fun being right in Hearthstone.
This card shines in “all spell” decks, but the thing that’s surprising me most at the moment is how you can fit this card into pretty much any Mage deck and reap the rewards. This card won’t cost you a lot to craft, and you can pretty much guarantee it’s going to be valuable until it is eventually nerfed
Outrider’s Axe
Some Hearthstone cards are so good that they’re kind of boring. Outrider’s Axe is one of those cards.
Effectively Warrior’s new best friend, Outrider’s Axe works so well in so many different types of Warrior decks that I’m honestly thinking its only weakness is the fact that class isn’t always viable. Otherwise, this card is pretty much perfect.
The Watch Post Cards
The biggest surprise of the Forged in the Barrens set (at least for me) has to be the viability of the new Watch Post cards.
While Crossroads Watch Post is a little too expensive for what it does, Mor’Shan and Far Watch Post are so good that people are forcing them into every kind of deck and are coming away with some impressive results. They can counter nearly every strategy in the game, and there’s a good chance that at least one of them will get nerfed in the future.
Kargal Battlescar
If Watch Posts are good, then it stands to reason that the card that rewards you for playing them is also pretty good.
The value of Kargal Battelscar is going to be based on the value of Watch Post cards, but as long as those remain as viable as they’ve been so far, then it stands to reason that this is going to be one of the more powerful late-game cards in Hearthstone. Honestly, it’s pretty good even if you’re only running a couple of Watch Post cards.
Kazakus, Golem Shaper
The award for best neutral Legendary card in the new Hearthstone expansion has to go to this surprising powerhouse.
There are actually quite a few good decks at the moment that work well with no (or very few) 4-cost cards. That means that the only real downside to Kazakus isn’t that mean of a deal in the first place. Even if you do have to build around this one a little bit, players are discovering that the rewards for doing so tend to outweigh any possible downsides. It’s just a tremendous card.
While you’re here, be sure to consider crafting these five cards that weren’t introduced in Forged in the Barrens but have gotten significantly better since that expansion was released.
Deck of Lunacy
I honestly never thought Deck of Lunacy would see competitive play, but Forged in the Barrens impacted this card in ways that few people anticipated.
See, the last rotation actually removed quite a few bad spells from the game. That means that Deck of Lunacy has a better chance of reducing the cost of spells that you’d absolutely put into a mage deck if you had the ability to do so. It’s a lot of fun at the moment and pretty broken to boot.
Jandice Barov
If Deck of Lunacy benefited from bad cards being removed from the game, then Jandice Barov essentially became an entirely different card.
At the moment, the random minions Jandice summons tend to be incredibly strong. Summons that used to be a stroke of luck have become the new normal. I don’t know how long this card is going to last in its current form, but it’s absolutely worth playing at the moment.
Pen Flinger
Pen Flinger was pretty good before the latest update, but the card has gotten significantly better thanks to some new cost reduction cards and cheap spells.
Only a few decks are able to maximize the potential of Pen Flinger at the moment, but considering that some of those decks are the strongest in Hearthstone right now, it’s easy enough to suggest you ensure you have two of these in your collection.
Tikatus
Tiktatus is quite honestly one of the most powerful and frustrating cards in Hearthstone at the moment. Of course, that means he should absolutely be in your collection.
Titkatus is one of those control cards that makes it very difficult to consider playing other control decks. It effectively destroys your opponent’s ways of winning the game, which means that you can actually end some matches as soon as you play it. It’s one of the reasons why Control Warlock is so good at the moment.
C’Thun, the Shattered
Even if C’Thun is one of those cards that gets destroyed by Tikatus, it’s still viable in enough decks to make it a surprisingly safe craft.
I didn’t expect C’Thun to be quite as good as it is, but it’s hard to deny that it gives many decks a win condition they wouldn’t usually be able to enjoy. I’ve even seen more aggressive decks start to work this one into the mix, which is always a sign of a card that’s worth crafting if you don’t have it already.