Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Let’s not pretend this is just another Hearthstone expansion. Into the Emerald Dream is basically the real starting point for 2025 Standard — the power level, the design direction, new archetypes; it all begins here.
Most of the cards we’ll cover here don’t need five months of support; some of them are ready to define decks on Day One, and others are already shaping the meta before a single game’s even played.
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Neutral
First, let’s get the obvious out of the way: Nightmare Lord Xavius might be the best card of the Into the Emerald Dream expansion, even though it’s not exactly what you’d expect from a final boss. Still, power level? Absolutely there.
A four-mana 4/4 that tutors a minion from your deck and gives it a random Dark Gift is just efficient. Whether you’ll be fishing for Goldrinn, The Ceaseless Expanse, or some other absurd payoff, it’s probably going to be an auto-include for many new decks.
Treacherous Tormentor is basically a buffed Paparazzi. This is the kind of minion that doesn’t look flashy at first, but the numbers check out. It will almost always be a top-tier Arena pick, and in Constructed, it could find its way into slower decks that want one more value piece without committing to a specific synergy. Future Highlander decks are going to love this one, by the way.
And Ancient of Yore is another card that didn’t make headlines in the reveal season, but I wouldn’t underestimate it. Dormant for two turns, sure, but during that time you’re drawing a card and gaining five Armor at the end of each turn. That’s:
- +10 Armor,
- +2 cards,
- a 5/5 body,
- all for 5 mana.
It is literally a perfect “do nothing now, do everything later” card. A bit of a sleeper pick, but keep an eye out — this one might quietly do a lot of heavy lifting this year.
Death Knight
As we’ve seen in early access streams, Leech King clearly has the potential to become a meta-defining deck in the Into the Emerald Dream metagame. Note that it doesn’t even need to be a triple Blood Rune (BBB) Death Knight; for instance, Hideous Husk only requires a single Blood Rune. Sure, the common sense is to run it in a control-heavy list, but the “Leech package” is actually quite versatile, as it’s offering:
- Sustain
- Board presence
- Corpses for payoff cards
- Synergy with buffing tools and potential swarm support
However, when it comes to control DK, we have Nythendra, a Legendary card that does everything a control DK wants. It stalls with Taunt and has a delayed reform, which simply translates to “value.” In a way, it feels reminiscent of Cairne, but updated to match the power level expected in 2025.
Demon Hunter
We have some Return Policy baits here. And that’s a good thing!
With Ravenous Felhunter, there’s crazy potential with Arkonite Defense Crystal; even though it got nerfed to +4 Armor only, you combine it with the above-mentioned Return Policy and with Ferocious Felbat — sounds like a pretty big Starship and a lot of armor.
On its own, this whole archetype looks slow, but in practice, this thing chains. It copies value, it scales, and most importantly, it stacks a tremendous amount of armor. Plus, this archetype has some extra support in the 2025 Core Set — with weapons like Tuskpiercer, for example.
Oh, and keep in mind that even if your Arkonite Defense Crystal gets silenced, you’ll still resurrect it with Ravenous Felhunter; it has to be transformed (with Hex, for example) to really be countered. Honestly, I wouldn’t expect it to be a Tier 1 strategy, but we’ll surely see some of Deathrattle DH in the meta – even if it’s going to be a low Tier-2 or high Tier-3 strategy.
Druid
You know what this is. The “Green Man” is back.
Hamuul Runetotem brings back that same energy Jade Druid had back in the day — but now it’s strapped to your Hero Power, and it scales automatically. At the start of the game, if all your spells are Nature, you replace your Hero Power with Blessing of the Golem, summoning a 1/1 plant. Then every two spells you cast (regardless of school), your Hero Power Imbues and the Golems grow by +1/+1 permanently.
So yeah:
- Turn 1: 1/1
- Turn 5: 4/4
- Turn 10: 8/8
And so on… If we’ve learned anything about Druid over the years, it’s that casting spells is not exactly a challenge.
Of course, the “only Nature spells” restriction is a real deckbuilding cost. You’re skipping over some pretty premium options, such as Swipe, Arkonite Revelations, New Heights, and Hydration Station. Still, most of Druid’s ramp and sustain tools are Nature already.
And with spells like Horn of Plenty supporting the archetype (basically a Primordial Glyph with less flash but more flexibility), your deck doesn’t even have to be that bad.
Hunter
Exotic Houndmaster is basically a two-mana 2/2 that draws a specific card. Say less, really. It’s the kind of card that’s so good, people are confused how Shaman got the two-cost imbue heal 4 while Hunter gets a free draw engine and archetype synergy…
As for Goldrinn — yes, it’s slow. Yes, it’s expensive. But the Imbued Hero Power helps cheat this out fast, especially if you’ve stacked enough imbues to get King Plush or Malorne down to 2-3 mana. At that point, Goldrinn is a kill switch.
And last we have Broll Bearmantle, which turns every spell into a random Animal Companion. Cast one? Boom — Huffer. Cast five? Get the dream board: five Huffers and one Leokk (for math’s sake). Okay, you’ll probably get two Mishas instead, but hey — 24/24 in stats for free doesn’t suck. This card screams “Miracle Hunter” with coin-generating engines like Cash Cow or Alien Encounters.
Mage
Wisp Mage is coming. Aessina gives you a real OTK potential, and it’s even crazier in the Wild format with Deathborne, Kel’Thuzad, etc.
Wisprider is just absurd, especially considering the fact that you can still double-trigger it with Sing-Along Buddy in Standard. Yup, that’s probably a four-mana board wipe with a token spam.
And then we have Divination… In its intended deck, it’s a stellar two-mana draw three. Play your Imbued hero power, drop this on a leftover body, and boom — you just refueled your hand for the next push. However, Outside of Wisp Mage, this card is straight-up unplayable. And if generated randomly, it’s a dead card more often than not. Still, token decks need draw tools, and this delivers. You’ll rarely mind drawing it if your deck’s doing what it should be doing.
Paladin
Paladin got an entire new identity with tools that scale like crazy into the late game. The reason this whole Imbue thing can be broken in Paladin is because every time you imbue your Hero Power, all future portals upgrade to summon higher-cost Dragons.
Yes, the portals scale retroactively; so if you draw them at Imbue level 4, you’re pulling four-cost Dragons. Not only that – with Dragonscale Armaments, you’re guaranteed to tutor your portals at any point in the game.
Moreover, with Ursine Maul you’re guaranteed to draw your Ceaseless Expanse and a new Paladin legendary, which makes this archetype super stable. This weapon is the kind of tutor+burn hybrid Blizzard usually avoids printing… and yet here we are.
Priest
Tyrande finally gets her own card after years of being relegated to hero skins — and it’s a good one. On paper, casting your next three spells twice can be crazy broken with stuff like:
- Acupuncture,
- Void Shard,
- or even Purified Shard.
This card offers Priest something it hasn’t had in a while: a reliable burst enabler. But it comes with baggage.
This effect is so good that it already feels like it’s taxing the rest of Priest’s card pool. Spells like Moonwell are clearly costed with Tyrande in mind, which creates a problem: how do you print strong, cheap, or synergistic Priest spells without instantly enabling degenerate OTKs? So yeah, there’s a design space concern here that’s difficult to ignore; we’ll see how Blizzard handles it for the next two years.
Rogue
As you saw in my Hearthstone 2025 rotation breakdown, Rogue will be losing quite a lot as a class. And Into the Emerald Dream is clearly trying to compensate its Burgle/Shadowstep packages.
Web of Deception is basically what we get as a Breakdance replacement, but instead of rush, you get a 4/4 Spider with Stealth. Sure, it costs two mana and doesn’t give you back the tempo right away, but if you’re bouncing cheap minions, especially ones with combo effects, this becomes a soft tempo play that leaves behind a decent threat. Stealth makes it hard to remove, and Prep obviously makes this a whole lot more interesting.
It’s weaker than previous bounce tools, no doubt. But if Rogue goes for any kind of tempo-aggressive list in this expansion, Web of Deception might quietly be one of its core cards.
Nightmare Fuel is a typical burgle card that’s better than it looks. It’s cheap, flexible, gives you deck information, and the payoff (a Dark Gifted minion from your opponent’s deck) can be absolutely bonkers depending on the matchup.
Against control decks like Priest or Warrior, you might hit a big legendary or something disruptive. Against aggro? You just paid one mana for a tempo play with potential upside.
Lastly, we have Rogue’s Wild God, Ashamane. I don’t know, this card seems a bit like a meme; but on the other hand, highroll potential is definitely there. And as we’ve learned from Excavate Rogue, a full hand of discounted cards can really swing a game.
Shaman
I don’t buy this whole Imbue Shaman thing, so Merithra is the only card I’ll be highlighting for this class. And well, you really don’t need much to make this card work; a single Murloc Growthfin or Nebula already makes this card good for its cost.
That’s not even mentioning resurrecting Zilliax, big Starships, synergy with Shudderblock… yeah. Fun, flavorful, and maybe broken with the right setup.
Warlock
Wallow, the Wretched is a win condition all by itself, and that’s no exaggeration. This one passively gains every Dark Gift you’ve given to any of your other minions while it sits in your hand or deck. Moreover, you don’t need to play the Dark Gift minions — just giving the gifts is enough.
And the moment it hits the board? Well…out of the current 10 Dark Gifts, some are absolutely game-ending when stacked:
- Charge
- Windfury + Divine Shield
- +3 Attack & Lifesteal
- Summon a 2/2 copy
Next, we have Agamaggan, the most Warlock card ever printed, in all the best (and worst) ways. And yeah, it’s another finisher Legendary for this class. What’s interesting (and what makes this card good as well) is how little setup it actually requires. Unlike most combo enablers, you don’t need to build around him obsessively. Plus, this card doesn’t care about armor or stuff like Ice Block; it just asks one simple question: “do you have enough blood left to stop me?”
Warrior
Tortolla‘s effect might look slow, but it’s exactly the kind of card that breaks board-based decks in half. Aggro can’t clear it efficiently, and control players risk letting it snowball if they ignore it. And if you cheat this out early (say, with Chemical Spill), that 10-mana downside becomes meaningless. A five-mana 2/25 that grows and feeds your Armor total? Good luck racing that.
As for Succumb to Madness, it’s super flexible in any Dragon Warrior deck. Yeah, the Ysondre combo is cute — play her once, then every time she dies, this spell brings her back and gives you another copy of her Deathrattle. But honestly, even if you just hit Afflicted Devastator, that’s already good value.
To conclude, the strongest decks of this set probably won’t kill you on turn six. But they’ll keep gaining Armor, redrawing threats, or generating boards you can’t answer — until you just run out of game.
Want the full picture? Head over to Blizzard’s official Into the Emerald Dream card list and follow CardGamer’s Subreddit to keep up with every relevant TCG update as it lands.
