Summary
Hearthstone’s Delve into Deepholm mini-set comes with many unique and powerful effects, ranging from extreme value-generation to cost-effective board clears to deadly combo enablers. Itintroduces many Highlanderand Excavate cards (just like the main set,Showdown in the Badlands, did). These types of cards are both fun and strong, so it’s great to see more of them.
Additionally, the mini-set sees the return of dual-class cards, which appear periodically in Hearthstone. They can be played in multiple classes, providing unique deckbuilding versatility. With so many interesting new cards to mess around with, let’s look at the options you should consider crafting from Delve into Deepholm.
Delve into Deepholm is Hearthstone’s tenth mini-set
10Shadow Word: Steal
Class: Rogue And Priest
Shadow Word: Steal might turn out to be the sort of card that is more annoying than good, but it will definitely rank highly in the “annoying” category. Five mana is somewhat expensive for single-target removal in current Hearthstone, but getting a copy of whatever minion you felt was powerful enough that you needed to remove it is a pretty good bonus.
And the synergies are there, too; Priests love removing cards and getting value, which is what this card does, and Rogue benefits from having cards from different classes. Besides, there’s no worse feeling than losing to your own cards.
9Shimmer Shot
Class: Hunter
In its basic form, Shimmer Shot is not the sort of card you want in your deck. Compared to the other spells available in Hearthstone, getting one damage and a random one-cost minion really isn’t worth one mana.
However, thanks to the many Spell Power boosts available to Hunter, Shimmer Shot will almost always have a much stronger effect than that. Even a single boost makes Shimmer Shot look significantly more attractive, and with each boost beyond that, the card becomes more and more exceptional.
8Mining Casualties
Class: Death Knight And Paladin
At a glance, Mining Casualties doesn’t seem all that impressive; it provides two mana for 4/4 in total stats, but the split (four separate 1/1s) is far from optimal. However, there are a lot of synergies in both of the classes that have access to it.
Mining Casualties provides multiple bodies to create Corpses for Death Knight and help guarantee targets for the many buffs available in Paladin. Additionally, the Frail Ghouls that are summoned have Charge, allowing them to impact the board immediately (although they also die at the end of your turn).
7Crystal Cluster
Class: Druid
Crystal Cluster is another example in a long line of ramp cards for Druid, potentially getting you from six mana to ten instantly. It’s pricey, but in a Druid deck that really wants to ramp up quickly and consistently, it could be an invaluable tool.
In the past, ramp tools would sometimes draw you a card if you played them at your maximum mana. For its cost, drawing a card wouldn’t be a good enough consolation prize for Crystal Cluster, but three 3/7 Taunts is actually an alright deal at six mana.
6Needlerock Totem
Class: Shaman And Warrior
Needlerock Totem is not an especially complicated card, but there is strength in its simplicity. It is guaranteed to at least get you two armor and a card, doing slightly better than replacing itself.
Each turn Needlerock Totem lives after that only provides more upside, and there are decks that will need to invest in an actual removal tool to kill it. As a side bonus, it’s also (somewhat obviously) a Totem, which could be relevant in both Menagerie Warrior and Totem Shaman.
5Aftershocks
Aftershocks is a great tool for helping you deal with those annoying aggro decks. Its multiple hits make the spell particularly effective against Deathrattle minions or Paladin boards with all their Divine Shields.
At four mana, the effect is arguably overpriced, but the cost reduction makes a big difference, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to activate most of the time. You’ll play spells relatively often in control and combo lists, which are going to be the primary decks in which you’ll find a double-sided board clear like Aftershocks.
4Shattered Reflections
Class: Priest And Druid
Shattered Reflections is the ultimate value spell. You can use it on your own minions to get extra copies of your best cards; a potent example is the Druid Titan, which can be played on the same turn as Shattered Reflections thanks to its mana refresh ability.
It can also be used to take your opponent’s minions, which is great with so many decks running Titans and Colossal minions of their own. Shattered Reflections doesn’t actually get rid of its target, though, so you’ll still need a way to deal with it afterward.
3Pendant Of Earth
Do you like playing big minions with overpowered effects but wanted a card that made finding them more consistent? Well, Pendant of Earth does exactly that while protecting you against aggressive strategies at the same time.
The Pendant is basically the perfect card for a control or combo deck that wants a specific minion in their hand every game. Better still, most of the minions you’ll be looking for are going to be fairly high cost, so Pendant of Earth will often gain you a lot of armor.
This spell does not create an extra copy of the minion; it takes the card from your deck and puts it into your hand.
2Sir Finley, The Intrepid
Class: Paladin And Shaman
Back in 2021, a card called Mass Polymorph was released, which cost seven mana and turned every minion onto the board into a 1/1. Sir Finley, the Intrepid has exactly the same effect, but it only hits your opponent’s minions and is four mana cheaper.
Sure, for Finley to be active, you need to have Excavated twice, but that’s easy to do by the time you’ll actually need Finley’s effect. Plus, the new Excavate reward for Paladin in this mini-set is excellent, so you’re already inclined to add Excavate cards to your Paladin decks.
1Deepminer Brann
Class: Warrior
The original Brann Bronzebeard, which duplicated your Battlecries while it was on the board, is one ofthe strongest minionsHearthstone has ever seen. For three more mana, Deepminer Brann gives you that effect permanently.
Yes, it comes with the Highlander restriction and can only be played in Warrior, but having that effect forever and without any conditions is going to be broken. The only real concern with the new Brann is that Highlander Warrior will end up being killed by aggro decks before it can take advantage of the card’s effect; if you survive to the late game with Deepminer Brann having been played, you’ll almost definitely win the game.
