Turning Trash into Treasure

Author: Andrew ‘The Water Boiler’ Klawitter

You’ve all seen them in your deckbuilder, the odd “build around me” cards that look awful at first glance. They are meant for the ‘puzzle player’, who wants to figure out how to make this seemingly bad card into something crazy exciting. Some of them have even incorporated themselves into top tier decks.

Intro to Puzzles 101

The perfect first example is the Ancient Watcher. This guy was picked out as an early star, but to someone new to the game, not being able to attack seems like a huge drawback. So if it can’t attack, and it lacks taunt, it sits there and does nothing unless you can find another card to activate it. This is a prime example of a ‘puzzle’ card, since you have to then look through your collection to figure out what other cards can take advantage of the 2 crystal discount on the Chillwind Yeti, and make the Watcher useful.

Before you read any further, go look through ‘my collection’ in hearthstone and see if you can figure out the answer for yourself. (who would I be to ruin a good puzzle before you’ve attempted to solve it on your own.) Ok, well maybe you’ve already seen this minion used against you, in which case someone else already ruined half the fun in my stead.

Silencing your own minion is the first answer to the puzzle, since it will negate the “can’t attack” text, allowing your cheap 4 / 5 to start bashing. (The new Wailing Soul, when it becomes collectible, will do just the trick!) The second puzzle solution is even better, using either Sunfury Protector or Defender of Argus to give the Ancient Watcher taunt, forcing your opponent to have to attack to clear the low crystal costing watcher, before going after the minion (or hero) you are attempting to protect. The last combination is one with Shadowflame, giving the warlock a 2-card, 6 crystal-cost, Flamestrike.

This is obviously a very strong card, once you figure out the right cards to solve it’s puzzling game text.

Add a little more Naxxramas to your Diet

So, what other minions are out there, that are looking to be solved? How about the intriguing Void Terror. Destroying your own minions to create one large minion has a huge drawback, in that it can be Polymorphed, Hexed, or Silenced down in size, (not to mention, simply dispatched by the Big Game Hunter). It also restricts where your damage can be assigned, since you are now required to place it all in one lump on a single target, instead of splitting up, as appropriate, with multiple targets, which you could do with 3 minions.

So, take a moment, and consider, what would be a reason we would want to destroy our own minion? After you’re ready, lets move onto what solutions to this puzzle could be.

This minion has not seen play at all, but with the curse of naxxramas providing us with a large amount of Deathrattle triggers, we could be seeing the second piece of the puzzle. If you have already received a benefit from the voluntary destruction and subsequent Deathrattle trigger from the two minions on either side that were destroyed to buff the void terror, the downside of one large minion target does not yield the typical feeling of consternation.

 

Eggs → Void Terror → Basket!

Enter the Nerubian Egg, the first of many Naxx cards sure to make a splash in the constructed scene. Remind you of that Ancient Watcher? it should, it’s another puzzle card! Since it is a useless 0 / 2 minion, that has a Death rattle text… to make a 4/4! But you will either have to destroy the egg yourself, or find a way to convince your opponent to do so.

The Warlock has no problem destroying his own cards. Sacrificing the egg to a Void Terror, or unleashing the Nerubian using Power Overwhelming, perhaps even a roasting Hellfire to crack the Egg open. But don’t worry, other classes can also get in on the fun, with any minions or spells that buff attack values. Whether it be class specific, such as the Flametongue Totem, or the Neutral Battlecry minions of Abusive Sergeant, Dark Iron Dwarf, Shattered Sun Cleric, or Defender of Argus.

The Egg also works as a means of AOE protection, without any attempts to break it yourself. Just play down the egg, and your opponent will think twice before going for that Consecration, Blizzard, or Holy Nova.

The Eggs biggest downside is that, unlike the Ancient Watcher, your opponent can negate it by deploying a Silence effect. For this reason, I try to make sure I have a way to kill the minion myself, instead of attempting to entice an opponent to do so.

He’s Angry people keep dusting him

Another interesting puzzle is the Angry Chicken. This Beast will gain +5 attack when enraged, but starts with only 1 health, making it impossible to do on it’s own. Pause for a second, before you dust him for the fifth time, and see if there might be a means at your disposal to anger this chicken and turn him loose on your opponent.

In a similar vein to the Egg, we are looking for a buff in stats, but instead of buffing attack, we need to bolster the health of the minion. But that’s only half of the puzzle, after buffing the health, we also need to find a way to damage the chicken to unleash it’s inner rage!

Fitting into any class you choose, there are numerous options available. The Hunter’s Houndmaster will provide a reasonable +2/+2 buff, making the chicken into a 3 / 3, (or a massive 8 / 2 if we can find a means to deal a point of damage to our own minion… that other piece of the maddening puzzle.) A Paladin can give us Chicken ala King, as a 5 / 5 when bestowed with the Strength of Kings. (or even a smaller 2 / 2 combined with the Sword of Justice). Perhaps the Chicken will even be willing to Avenge his fallen foes! Similarly, a Druid can Mark up the Chicken, either to let it be Wild, or one with Nature. Even the Priest can cast a Shield on the tiny Chicken, pair it with a Temple Enforcer,or newly minted Dark Cultist. Other means to increase health come in the form of Young Priestess, Blood Imp, and Defender of Argus. Does this mean we could have an Angry Chicken seen locked up in our Zoos?

This is all fine and good, but the Chicken has a tertiary puzzle component, it also has to be enraged. And I know just the Pyromancer to do so! Since a lot of the health buffing effects are spells, as long as the Pyro is around, you will be able to both buff and enrage the chicken at the same time!

 

Unfortunately, because of how complex this particular puzzle card is, and how many pieces are required for its completion, it is quite RNG dependant. But if you are looking for a fun deck to just fool around and relax with in hearthstone, nothing beats trying to anger a chicken!

It Started with a Wisper

Lastly, lets look at the little Wisp. Many players do not believe this card is even worth a card slot in a deck. They might be right, but if it looks blatantly awful, maybe there is some way we can manage to get some good use out of him yet!

The biggest benefit of the Wisp is that he costs no crystals to play. This means it is super crystal efficient. To offset the drawback of it costing a card, we need to make sure that we have plenty of ways to draw extra cards. In addition we want to get something more out of the minion than just having an extra Silver Hand Recruit or Violet Apprentice on the board.

Almost like a pseudo-coin that doesnt require you to go first to use, the Wisp can enable the Rogue Combo cards at insanely low crystal costs. Unfortunately, the presence of Backstab at the same crystal cost is a huge deterrent for use of the Wisp, since dealing 2 damage immediately is generally much stronger than having a delayed possibility at a single damage. But on an empty board, if you are looking for an extremely aggressive opening move, without relying on the coin - We get a turn 1 Leper Gnome, turn 2 Wisp-Defias Ringleader combo. (Do I sense a turn 3 Coldlight Oracle?)

Other than enabling Rogue explosive starts, the wisp will be waiting happily in your collection, hopeful for a future expansion release to bring out its full potential use in other classes.

—

Do you also take pleasure at winning with cards other players have dismissed as useless? Every expansion might unlock hidden potential from some older obscure cards. Have you found a nifty solution to a puzzle card you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments section below!