Most Important Cards Rotating Out Of Standard In 2022 – Demon Hunter, Druid, Hunter, Mage, and Paladin (Part 1)

Year of the Gryphon is coming to an end. A new Standard year should be announced shortly and release early-mid April, with the launch of the first expansion of 2022. It’s a huge event for every Standard player since it changes the meta landscape completely – all decks relying on cards from 2 years ago will have to either develop a new gameplan or simply disappear.

In just a few weeks, all cards from 2020 expansions – Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire (+Darkmoon Races mini-set) will rotate out to Wild. That’s a total of 440 cards out of the picture. And not just any cards – Year of the Phoenix was an incredibly impactful year, with tons of powerhouse cards that today’s decks rely on.

In this article (or rather the first article of the three, because covering all 10 classes + neutrals in one was just too much), I’ll showcase the most important cards rotating out soon. Of course, it only includes expansion cards, because we don’t yet know what will change in Core Set 2022 (we’ll have a separate article about that soon after the announcement).

Now, a few words by what I mean by “most important”. I will cover cards that are commonly played right now, or cards that have made a substantial meta impact in the past. For example, if a card hasn’t been seen in almost a year, but it was played in a very popular meta deck before that, I will still include it. That’s because it being gone would still impact the upcoming meta, let’s say in case more related synergies get printed. What I won’t include are cards that were once key, but got nerfed and were no longer played after the nerf (let’s say Mindrender Illucia). The reason is that they’re most likely too weak to see play after the nerfs and them rotating out won’t really make a big impact.

Without further ado, let’s get to the first five classes. I will cover the next five in the second article, and neutrals in the third.

• Check out Part 2 – Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior – here!

(Just one note – both Crimson Sigil Runner and Spectral Sight are rotating out since they were originally from Ashes of Outland, but they are still a part of the Core Set 2021, so no one can say for sure whether they will stay or not.)

As you can see, Demon Hunter is losing a lot. And I mean A LOT. Lifesteal OTK Demon Hunter – gone, because Il’gynoth is the card that activates the whole combo. Felfire Deadeye + Expendable Performers finisher, present in almost every DH deck right now – gone. Kurtrus, Demon-Render might still be a solid, standalone card, but without the late game combo inevitability, it will be much worse at closing out the games. Brute Demon Hunter – while Brutes and the weapon stay in Standard, losing Felosophy means that you’re going from de facto four Brutes to only two Brutes in your deck. The only “slower” or “combo” Demon Hunter deck that can still be kind of viable seems to be Fel build with Jace Darkweaver, but that one will get significantly weaker too.

Assuming you will want to continue playing Questline Demon Hunter in some form, let’s say the aforementioned Fel build, the deck is also losing A LOT of power. It will be much harder to complete the Quest without cards like Double Jump, Acrobatics, Glide or Illidari Studies offering more draw (not to mention that if Spectral Sight rotates out after all, it will be an even bigger blow). No Immolation Aura or Felscream Blast also means that the deck will be way more susceptible to early aggression.

And what about non-Questline decks? To be fair, they haven’t been very popular lately either way, but let’s see. Aggro build will be hit quite hard, mostly when it comes to card draw. The low curve build relied on cards like Voracious Reader, Acrobatics or Stiltstepper to not run out of cards, while slightly slower ones had Skull of Gul'dan as their refill. Kayn Sunfury being gone would also mean that the deck might have harder time closing out the game after the Taunts are set in place, but the faster build didn’t run it anyway, relying on finishing the game before big Taunts even come into action.

The entire Soul Fragment package is also gone. Truth to be told, it hasn’t seen much play this year, but it was a really important meta deck during Scholomance and Darkmoon Faire expansions.

The only deck that’s coming out relatively unscathed seems to be Deathrattle Demon Hunter. Probably the biggest loss here is Skull of Gul’dan – it was a premium card draw, and given that you ran so many 3+ cost cards, it usually paid itself off and even provided some free tempo. Losing Renowned Performer also kind of sucks, but the card is not irreplaceable. But I can still see Deathrattle DH making a comeback next year.

Just like for Demon Hunter, the upcoming rotation is going to be massive for Druid – slower and faster builds alike. Slower/ramp builds are losing Lightning Bloom, Overgrowth, Cenarion Ward, both Eclipses, Resizing Pouch, Nature Studies, Guess the Weight, Moontouched Amulet… While not present here, because the cards are Neutral, Strongman, Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound and Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate are all gone too. Basically, Ramp Druid is losing like 3/4 of the cards. A lot of that is also going to affect the more recent Kazakusan Build. Not to the same extent, but still. Ramp Druid is as good as dead, we would need the most overpowered Core Set + expansion for the Druid in order to keep it alive. Kazakusan has a slightly higher survival chance, but it still looks very grim.

Spell Druid, including the recent Kazakusan variants, will also be pretty much dead, losing Fungal Fortunes, Glowfly Swarm, as well as many of the cards listed above. Oh, and of course Arbor Up. It has been the main win condition for any board-based Druid deck. Many decks will struggle at closing out the games without it.

Aggro and Beast Druid will not be hurt to the same extent as Ramp, but they’re still hit quite heavily, mostly by the loss of Arbor Up. It was the biggest pay-off card for creating a wide board, and it also had a huge advantage of not being useless on a smaller one. Even with only 1-2 minions, Arbor Up was a solid on-curve play that bolstered your existing board and added two new mid-sized threats. Umbral Owl rotating out will also hurt Beast Druid, the card was only okay-ish by itself, but it was really strong when combined with Oracle of Elune. Adorable Infestation was also one of the best early game cards in the deck, creating a wider board, possibly buffing something out of removal range, and progressing your beast count for the sake of Matriarch. While Taunt builds weren’t as popular in this meta, Greybough was kind of a big deal last expansion in the Razormane Battleguard variant, it was just mostly pushed out by the Beast version this set.

Anacondra Druid, even if we don’t count all of the cards it shared with Ramp variant, also loses Germination and Survival of the Fittest. So basically its main win condition. Germination was used either to summon multiple Anacondras (especially in non-Alignment versions) or to finish the game off with a few buffed Mr. Smites (in Alignment version). And survival is the main win condition right now – the deck created a massive board buffed with often as many as 2 or 3 survivals, something that almost no opponent could deal with (assuming the opponent was even alive to respond in the first place).

While not as popular as of late, the Guardian Animals builds are also gone, including ones that played Carnival Clown as their late game win con. Animals are rotating out, so are the Beasts you wanted to summon, and so is Survival of the Fittest that turned them into scary threats.

Long story short, it’s hard to say where the Druid class is heading. But I can surely say that all of the slow Druid builds like Ramp, Kazakusan, Anacondra or Clown are as good as dead in their current form. There’s much more hope for faster decks, mostly Beast Druid, I can see them still being viable after rotation, especially if they get another “finisher” to replace Arbor Up.

After the bloodbath of Demon Hunter and Druid, we’re coming to Hunter, which… To be honest, doesn’t lose that much. But also, to be honest, most of Hunter’s presence in Standard over the last few expansions was limited to Face Hunter. We had some non-Face builds popping out, like the recent Questline build (that’s gaining popularity once again), but it’s nothing like the year before, where Hunter had a choice of few versions of Highlander, Dragon, Secret etc. Sure, players have TRIED to build Deathrattle Hunter, Beast Hunter, even Secret Hunter, but they frankly never worked well enough. Blizzard has made attempts to bring different Hunter decks to life, but it seems like they never really committed enough cards to those and they all fell flat.

Looking at the most important Hunter deck, however, it might not lose that many cards, but the ones it loses will hurt a lot. Wolpertinger and Trampling Rhino were usually the only two Beasts played in Hunter builds – and they both worked really well with tutor effect of Warsong Wrangler. With those gone, Warsong Wrangler might also be useless. Losing Adorable Infestation, Demon Companion and – to a lesser extent – Trueaim Crescent / Rinling's Rifle – will also hurt the deck. Imprisoned Felmaw hasn’t been a very popular choice recently, but it was a big part of Face Hunter builds, and people won’t be able to use it to fill the gaps created by rotation of other, more popular cards.

If we look at alternative builds – Questline Hunter’s survival will heavily depend on the Core Set. While it’s losing some expansion cards like Overwhelm or Bola Shot, it’s a loss it could deal with. However, it relies heavily on the likes of Arcane Shot or Quick Shot that are a part of Core Set 2021.

And last, but not least, some Secret synergies are gone. Pack Tactics has proven to be a very useful Secret, while Petting Zoo was a nice synergy card for pure Secret builds. I’m mentioning those even though they haven’t seen almost any play this year mostly because Blizzard has pushed a bunch of Secret synergies lately with Fractured in Alterac Valley. Assuming they want to continue and print more, losing those two cards might hurt a bit.

All of that said, I’m quite sure that Hunter will be fine. Blizzard is always pushing more aggressive cards for the class (which makes sense, since that’s Hunter’s main class identity) and it doesn’t take THAT much for Face Hunter to be a thing thanks to the class’ Hero Power.

Maybe let’s start with what I assume is good news for most of you – Mozaki, Master Duelist is out, so OTKs based on the card are no longer possible. With Questline Mage also not viable whatsoever, doubly so with so many good cards rotating out, I would assume that this kind of Mage playstyle is now gone.

What about other decks, though? Right now the only kind of viable Mage builds except Mozaki are Hero Power / Big Spell Mage. I’m saying “kind of” viable, because they’re like Tier 3 – playable if you’re committed, but not great decks overall. Good news is that those aren’t losing much, with one big exception – Mask of C'Thun. Mask was one of the main win conditions for Big Spell variant, and also quite useful in the Hero Power one. In Big Spell, it was usually played once and then replayed over and over again – with Grey Sage Parrot and Magister Dawngrasp. You could, in theory, play 5 copies in a row, but 2-3 was actually quite likely and a great way to close out some matchups (especially those light on minions). But even the Hero Power variant loved it, since it deals a lot of damage and it’s the only Shadow spell, so Dawngrasp would always recast it. It’s not a death sentence for those decks, not at all, just a quite big hit for losing only one important card.

Then, the whole “spell damage” package is also out. Astromancer Solarian, Ras Frostwhisper, Lab Partner, Primordial Studies, Cram Session, Imprisoned Phoenix. While admittedly a “Tempo Mage” deck (that also played cards like Brain Freeze, Wand Thief, Firebrand etc.) hasn’t been played in a while, it doesn’t look like it will be a viable option post-rotation either.

And finally, Secrets. I’ll be honest with you – I expected more from this year. Blizzard has put some Secrets and Secret synergies into Core Set 2021. We had some Secret synergies from 2020 still in Standard. The deck was on a brink of viability a few times, and all it took was to release 2-3 more good synergies. It never happened, and with cards like Sayge, Seer of Darkmoon, Occult Conjurer, Rigged Faire Game etc. being out, it would be weird if they started pushing Secrets next year after dropping the support when those were still in Standard.

Mage is already in a pretty rough spot, and so far it doesn’t look like the rotation is going to help. Most of the viable decks the class got over the last few sets were deemed “toxic” and nerfed quite heavily. I’m not here to discuss whether they deserved it or not, but the reality is that Mage needs some help. Either more Big Spell / Hero Power synergies, or maybe pushing it in a different direction, like Dragons.

Looking at the cards Paladin is losing, one word comes to mind – Libram. Aldor Attendant, Aldor Truthseeker, Libram of Wisdom, Libram of Justice, Libram of Judgment, Libram of Hope. And that’s just Librams themselves – we also have support cards like Devout Pupil and Lady Liadrin that have been vital to the deck’s existence. Libram package has been a Paladin’s staple ever since its introduction back in Ashes of Outland. Libram Paladin was (more or less) playable in every single expansion since then, and it was a go-to Paladin build for many players. The class will have to look for a new identity.

But Librams and Libram synergies aren’t the only cards that Paladin is losing. Buff Paladin will also be hurt once cards like Hand of A'dal or Blessing of Authority will be gone. The former was played across all Paladin decks (2 mana buff with card draw was just too good to not run), but the latter was particularly powerful in deck that also played Sunwing Squawker and Battleground Battlemaster.

Secret Paladin, on top of losing some of the cards I’ve already listed (like Hand of A’dal) also won’t be able to play Oh My Yogg!. It was probably the best Paladin Secret, so it’s going to hurt, but the good news is that most of the Secret package was released in Forged in the Barrens, meaning that all the deck needs is one good Secret to run instead.

The Handbuff package will definitely be hurt with Murgur Murgurgle and Goody Two-Shields gone. Handbuff Paladin relies on Prismatic Jewel Kit, so the more strong Divine Shields we have, the better it is. Luckily the rest of Handbuff package is from Stormwind, so the deck should also survive relatively unscathed.

And finally there’s Lord Barov, which was honestly a more vital card for Warrior than for Paladin.  Still, Libram builds have liked it, so did other slow Paladin decks, but it’s not like slow Paladin decks were particularly popular (other than Big Paladin, but it didn’t run Barov for obvious reasons). The card will hurt Paladin’s ability to control the board, especially since it rotates alongside Libram of Justice. If Blizzard wants to push a slower Paladin build, we will need some solid board control tools to replace those. But that clearly wasn’t the direction Team 5 took for the class over the last few expansions.

Long story short – Libram Paladin is dead, obviously, and Buff Paladin is going to be much weaker, but a lot of powerful Paladin cards were released during Year of the Gryphon. We’ve got Secret package from Barrens, Handbuff package from Stormwind and even more buffs + Lightforged Cariel from Alterac Valley. I think that Paladin should do just fine, all it needs is a bit of direction or a few more cards to support the strategies pushed this year.