devtrackers.gg
Quick note: I'm not saying this is 100% HoF replacement cards, I'm just theorizing why these cards were in the internal testing stuff.
Quick overview of the bucket system: Arena's draft choices will all come from the same set of cards around the same level of power level pick rate, which is called the bucket system. For us hardcore players, we want to know what the buckets are, so Blizzard has been kind enough to provide a CSV file of all the cards in each bucket. I myself convert the CSV into a Google spreadsheet to archive the buckets and identify which cards moved where and such.
Now, what was interesting about this was that there were a bunch of cards in the list that are not cards in the game. This has happened before, and it usually is something like a card had a different name before it got released, but I notice no cards missing, and with the correlations, I'm speculating these might either be replacement cards for cards that rotated to the HoF, or possibly cards in the Adventure that got mixed up with the bucket system for whatever reason. Anyways, listing all the cards, and presumably the cards they replace that moved to HoF.
Druid
- Gift of the Wild: Naturalize just moved to the HoF, Gift of the Wild is a pretty generic name, entirely possible this is a replacement for Naturalize.
Paladin
Where my theory gets a hole poked in it, no cards here to replace Divine Favor.
Priest
- Radiance: Priest has no HoF cards, so another hole here. The card also has a generic name though, so possible a Priest card was considered for the HoF but didn't get chosen in the end.
Rogue
- Plaguebringer: Conceal already has a HoF equivalent (Pilfer) so another random card that not sure why it would appear.
Warlock
- Waxmancer Adept and Siegebreaker: Doomguard just rotated to the Hall, so with Warlock having 2 new cards appear here, its possible one of these cards is replacing Doomguard. Not sure what the other card would be for, if another card was considered for the Hall or not, but two new cards appearing in Warlock.
Neutral non-Legendary
- SI:7 Infiltrator and Barrens Stablehand: There are three neutral cards that have rotated to the HoF: Azure Drake, Molten Giant, and Coldlight Oracle. Two new cards here to possibly replace them.
Neutral Legendary
- Brightwing and High Inquisitor Whitemane: Two legendaries have rotated to the Hof: Rag and Sylvannas. Two new legendaries here, possibly to replace them. These cards got me thinking all the cards here were spitballed cards to replace HoF cards.
Again, not sure if these are all HoF replacement cards, just where my mind went when I saw these cards. They might be dummy cards, might be rejected cards for RoS, might be adventure cards, or some other explanation. I tried asking Iksar about this but he never replied, so not sure what these cards would be. Figured I'd post them to the greater Hearthstone reddit, see what you guys think.
External link →