To celebrate Hearthstone's 10th birthday I spoke to OG streamers and casters about their best metas, favourite moments, and most hated cards

GamesHearthstoneTo celebrate Hearthstone’s 10th birthday I spoke to OG streamers and casters about their best metas, favourite moments, and most hated cardsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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Not a bad beard for a 10-year-old, you have to admit.(Image credit: Blizzard)

10th Birthday

Hearthstoneturned 10this week, which on a personal note means I’ve been playing, watching and writing about the same game for a decade. From the halcyon days of peak RNG being Sylvanas stealing your opponent’s Ragnaros, through the absolute degeneracy of Demon Hunter on day one, to the Colossals and Titans of the modern game, it’s been a great ride. I was chatting to a colleague who also covered the game back in its golden era, remembering how great it was when there seemed to be a new tournament on Twitch every other week and the esports scene was doing legitimately huge viewership.

For years the game fizzed with a constant influx of Mensa-smart young players who generated new memes as fast as they did game-breaking decks. As with all games that last this long, thatimperial phasecouldn’t last forever, and none of us knew quite how good we’d had it until we were on the downslope. But even now I get excited before a new expansion—the nostalgia-heavy Whizbang’s Workshop is out next week—eager to see what madness the current designers have cooked up.

To celebrate the game’s big anniversary, I decided to catch up with many of the OG stars who still share a love of the game, to see what their favourite memories are (and hear a few nightmares too).

Kripparrian

Favourite moment:The biggest moment I’ve had in Hearthstone was the first big button press. I was regularly playing Arena and earning golden cards and many packs filled with extra copies, but rarely ever crafted the golden cards I was missing, or got rid of the copies. The copies were best kept as extras, because if Blizzard ever nerfed a card, they would offer a full refund for disenchanting it, and playing the (very) long game of grinding out a full golden collection meant that patience was key.

The big button press was over three years in the making, but it came at a point that I realized I couldn’t keep up with the release schedule of card sets. [Kripp was eligible for 660,620 Arcane Dust at the time he nuked all the extras—Ed.] I later learned from the dev team that they weren’t sure what would happen when I pressed the button, as nobody had disenchanted so many cards with one click before.

Coolest card design of all time:Coldlight Oracleis my favorite overall. An amazingly versatile card that later spawned the fatigue Druid archetype, which became my favorite deck of all time.

Building decks around each Old God was a blast.—Kripp

Building decks around each Old God was a blast.

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Best Meta:While I mostly played Arena, I would check out constructed Hearthstone each cycle to see what Blizzard had come up with, and get some experience playing the new sets and their decks. While I often only played for a few days, Whispers of the Old Gods kept my interest for almost the entirety of the set’s cycle. Building decks around each Old God was a blast as it could be done differently with each class, and you could even combine decks with several Old Gods in one!

Worst Meta:While it was fun to see the first real class addition with Demon Hunter, it quickly got out of hand. I would regularly play against Demon Hunter opponents exclusively for long periods at a time. [The first set of Demon Hunter cards were so ridiculous they had to be nerfed within 24 hours—Ed]

Kibler

Favourite Hearthstone moment:Casting theWorld Championship Finals in 2015—or this nonsense [embedded above].

Coolest card design of all time:Elise the Trailblazer. I loved getting anUn’Goro packfromShadow Visionsand then trying to win with whatever nonsense was in it.

Card you wish had been nerfed sooner:Warsong Commander. Patron being dominant for as long as it was led to entire sets feeling like they didn’t matter. [Sottle actually wrote adefence of the cardfor PC Gamer back in 2015, but as a huge Patron player, it may have been alittlebiased—Ed.]

Best Meta:Journey to Un’Goro (minusQuest Rogue)

Worst Meta:United in Stormwind. It felt like every deck was either a super linear quest combo or hyper fast aggro.

Savjz

Favourite Hearthstone moment:Winning SeatStory Cup II. That whole event was very special to me. [The SeatStory series was an early Hearthstone tournament held at a studio in Germany, where all the players would hang out, and was known for its chaotic but fun vibe.]

Coolest card design of all time:The OGReno, because it encouraged the ‘highlander’ playstyle for the first time.

Card you wish had been nerfed sooner:The original Undertaker. It took Blizzard six months, even though it was ultra OP. The game was picking up pace at an incredible speed at the time, so I assume they didn’t want to touchanything. It was painful.

Best Meta:Honestly, if I thought about it for a long time I would probably give a different answer, butPrince Renathalwas a breath of fresh air when itcame out in its original form. It slowed the game significantly, making it a bit closer to the type of grindy, back and forth gameplay that I enjoy, but has been absent at times due to the single-turn power spikes that I don’t enjoy as much.

Worst Meta:I don’t have a specific answer, but whenever there is an OTK that happens from hand early, that’s the worst. OK, I do have an example:Mozaki, Master Duelleistwhich existed at a time when there was no counterplay in the form of any disruption.

Sean ‘Day9’ Plott

Jaded(Image credit: Future)In addition to hosting the PC Gaming Show for a decade as of this year, my favourite Day9 moment is his classicrant about Jade Druidplayers: “Well this turn I’ll summon a larger man, which will allow me later on to summon an evenlargerman.”

Jaded

(Image credit: Future)In addition to hosting the PC Gaming Show for a decade as of this year, my favourite Day9 moment is his classicrant about Jade Druidplayers: “Well this turn I’ll summon a larger man, which will allow me later on to summon an evenlargerman.”

(Image credit: Future)

Sean Plott headshot from PC Gaming Show 2022 on set

In addition to hosting the PC Gaming Show for a decade as of this year, my favourite Day9 moment is his classicrant about Jade Druidplayers: “Well this turn I’ll summon a larger man, which will allow me later on to summon an evenlargerman.”

My favorite Hearthstone moment:The Best Worst Game. [For those not familiar with Sean’s oeuvre, this is a a 30-minute Priest Mirror with some iconic belly laughs and quotes like: “Oh my god, I’m going to vomit blood."—Ed.]

Coolest card design of all time:Echo of Medivh! I built some awesome giant decks with that card! OrAstral Communion, for the clown show.

My favorite meta: Journey to Un’Goro. It was so insanely fun with Discover, Quests, and Adapt. Every game felt very rich and decision heavy.

My least favorite meta:UndertakerDeathrattle Hunter. Unless you had an instant answer, it spiraled out of control SO HARD my god.

Card I wish had been nerfed sooner: Symbolically,Mind Controlfrom 8 to 10 mana at Hearthstone’s launch. It foreshadowed the next five years of my Hearthstone experience where it felt like Blizzard wassoslow andsoconservative about balancing and changing overpowered and/or problem cards.

Frodan on stage with Liooon after she won Grandmasters Global Finals.(Image credit: Blizzard)

Hearthstone World Championship

Dan ‘Frodan’ Chou

Favourite Hearthstone moment:Hosting the winning moment on the BlizzCon stage when Li ‘Liooon’ Xiaomeng made esports history [as the first woman to win the Hearthstone Grandmasters Global Finals—Ed].

Coolest card design of all time:Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End.

Card you wish had been nerfed sooner:Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End.

Best Meta:Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End.

Worst Meta:Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End.

A CLEAN SWEEP!! VKLIOOON HAS WON THE HEARTHSTONE GLOBAL FINALS!!! pic.twitter.com/3PwNX0qcBqNovember 2, 2019

Sottle (middle) taking some time off from writing PC Gamer articles to host Worlds.(Image credit: Blizzard)

10th Birthday

Simon ‘Sottle’ Welch

Favourite Hearthstone Moment:Liooon wins Worlds and her subsequent speech. A lot of people that know my history might expect me to single out Hunterace vs Viper as my favourite moment [which remains the most incredible World Championship final in the game’s history—Ed], but the following year is just that little bit more special to me for a number of reasons. Firstly, due to various travel issues and other logistical nightmares, the casting lineup was heavily impacted, meaning I had to be front and centre for the majority of a World’s broadcast, which was an incredible privilege. Far more importantly than that though, the history-defining moment of Liooon’s victory and her words on stage brought tears to my eyes.

[Liooon’s speech below is embedded below—Ed.]

If you ask me what story I’ll be telling my grandkids for the 34th time while they look on in disbelief that I’m still talking about Hearthstone, it’s this one.

Coolest Card Design of all Time:Zephrys the Great. I think as hands-on time with this card passed, more and more people started to focus on the fact that the card wasn’t a living breathing sentient empath that knew intuitively what your gameplan and innermost desires were. Instead, I think it’s worth celebrating what anambitious projectthis card was from a design perspective, and how it (mostly) achieved what it was supposed to do.

Card I wish had been nerfed sooner:None! Leave the strong stuff alone. Let chaos reign. Adapt or die.

Neil ‘Lorinda’ Bond

“Skull of Gul’dan at 5 Mana? Seems fine. Ship it."(Image credit: Blizzard)

Hearthstone Demon Hunter Illidan Stormrage Hero

Favourite Hearthstone moment:Liooon winning worlds, but I’m aware Sottle has also chosen that, so I’ll pickFeno winning HCT Orange County. It was the culmination of Hunterace’s dominant year, but Feno had performed incredibly consistently without a win and was a hugely popular player. Although I wasn’t there for that event, I’d been at many many featuring him that year and although it wasn’t the most important win ever in the scheme of things, it was the loudest I’d ever screamed at a match. I’m pretty sure I tweeted something out with joyous expletives when he won.

Coolest card design of all time:Zephrys the Great.

Card you wish had been nerfed sooner:Prince Renethal or Edwin Van Cleef.

Best Meta:Theone-day Demon Hunter meta!

Worst Meta:The one with Cubelock and Hadronox.

RDU

We Esports Now(Image credit: G2 Esports)Although these days he purely plays the Battlegrounds mode, back when the competitive scene was healthy enough to support actual teams, Rdu (centre right) played for G2 alongside Thijs, Lifecoach and Lothar. Surely the most stacked lineup the game ever saw.

We Esports Now

(Image credit: G2 Esports)Although these days he purely plays the Battlegrounds mode, back when the competitive scene was healthy enough to support actual teams, Rdu (centre right) played for G2 alongside Thijs, Lifecoach and Lothar. Surely the most stacked lineup the game ever saw.

(Image credit: G2 Esports)

G2 Esports Hearthstone team

Although these days he purely plays the Battlegrounds mode, back when the competitive scene was healthy enough to support actual teams, Rdu (centre right) played for G2 alongside Thijs, Lifecoach and Lothar. Surely the most stacked lineup the game ever saw.

Favourite Hearthstone moment:My favorite moment, outside of winning a tournament, would be when I got #1 legend and then decided to queue some games withWhizbangdecks for fun. [Whizbang is designed to help new players, and gives you one of 18 random decks each time you play it—Ed.]

I was so happy when I heard that not only is he coming back, but he’s also the central theme of thenext expansion.

Coolest card design of all time:I think the coolest cards ever made were theDeath Knight heroes, so I rank Shadowreaper Anduin as the most badass ever. It completely changed the dynamic of how the Priest class is supposed to be played.

Card you wish had been nerfed sooner:The Rogue Quest and some other game-dominating Quests that made gameplay repetitive.

Worst Meta:There were a few metas that I didn’t like but nothing compares with Goblins vs Gnomes. It came out right after Naxx, which was one of the best releases, and it felt horrible to play with so much randomness that couldn’t be controlled in a skillful way.

Trump

The Mayor of Value Town skipped the other questions but sent a truly old school clip featuring one of ourfavourite crusteaceans. Trump wrote: “It’s fitting that the video’s just about 10 years old.”

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Kripparrian#

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Kibler#

Savjz#

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Neil ‘Lorinda’ Bond#

RDU#

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