Ranking EVERY Keyword In Hearthstone!

[@ahpauloh]

Sorry for the clunky layout, this was the first tier list I did and I've since improved things! The next tier list is excavate treasures!

[@peshomighty5051]

Interesting, I love reborn the best resummon your minion. It's like divine shield

[@LuizMoratelli]

Content is so good that I didnt see any layout problems

[@ahpauloh]

​@@LuizMoratelli Thanks! Well it will only get better then lol, basically my newer tier lists have a more clean layout plus I have the livestream chat at the top left instead of the image I put here.

[@Grooviebones]

"Discover" is simultaneously S tier and F tier for me. When it was first introduced it felt really good, now its so oversaturated the game feels designed around it. S tier for usefulness. F tier for permanently altering the design philosophy and speed of the game forever when it was introduced.

[@ahpauloh]

Well said, I couldn't agree more!

[@Tamaghnagogo]

Great list, but overkill should have a tier on its own lol

[@krazykreeper1234]

I don’t play Hearthstone and was looking for something exactly like this. The slides are AWESOME and thank you for putting so much time into this! Love the content.

[@ahpauloh]

Thanks! In hindsight I should do the slides for some other tier lists as well, it definitely helped and added a lot.

[@johncallahan429]

echo and inspire weren't even bad mechanics.... they just only got put on cards that were terrible. Echo cards where too expensive for their effect and Inspire minions had weak stats so they never lived a turn to get an inspire trigger

[@ahpauloh]

I agree, I cover it a bit in the video but it can be difficult to evaluate some of the older keywords since the cards themselves were so bad. I talked a bit about whether the keyword itself is bad, or if the cards that were printed with it were just bad. It'd be super interesting to see some of these keywords revisited in modern hearthstone though!

[@apelsejati3261]

@@ahpaulohinspire definitely has proven it can be good with modern design as in descent of dragon phase stalkers and dragonbane seen a lot of play iirc since they are basicly inspire effect

[@marosvarga9198]

Quickdraw is an easy F for me: either it frustrates you 'cause you drew it when you don't need it or it frustrates your opponent 'cause you topdecked it. Either way somebody gets tilted

[@ahpauloh]

Quickdraw was definitely a huge let down for me, on paper it seemed cool but in practice it just feels bad as you said!

[@joeystett]

I just started to get back into hearthstone after years of not really playing, thanks so much for making this video it's really helpful.

[@ahpauloh]

Glad you enjoyed it! That's one thing I really like about these tier lists, showing cards and mechanics that newer players may not be familiar with!

[@LuizMoratelli]

I think highlander could also be a "not a keyword" but keyword-ish. I really like the part that you show/talk about reprint cards, maybe you could do a whole video about cards that reuses old mechanics but sometimes not the keyword.

[@ahpauloh]

That's a really good idea! That's got me thinking about a video idea now lol

[@Wyti]

IMO should have included evergreen as well

[@ahpauloh]

I'll probably do another tier list for evergreen keywords at some point, but I didn't want it to be too too long.

[@damonblack1495]

Quests and questlines are two keywords that caused me to quit hearthstone until they rotated out. You seem to be basing things on play time + amount of cards played and this being less of an opinion piece. Up until Twinspell anyway. This one stands out as an outlier rating. Because quests and especially questline are the two worst types of cards ever made for hearthstone. I do see some opinion in the fine tuning though. I disagree with Titan and Invoke being evergreen or coming back. Titan is an A tier mechanic though. But otherwise I mostly agree.

[@shrimpCurry]

The problem with questline i think is because of how overpowered the rewards are compared to the requirements to get to it most of them are just play the game to progress.the reward also didn't need the 7/7 body they could have been just a 5 mana spell or have a smaller body. So i think it more of a problem of execution then the key word bein just bad.

[@THMCTerracraft2]

Sherazin the Corpse Flower is crying because of you. I didn't know it was possible, he seemed so happy all the time, but you did it.

[@marosvarga9198]

I'd love to see a tierlist of keywords that are not exactly keywords but specific game mechanics, i.e. spellstones, auras, seedlings, gifts, schemes...

[@ahpauloh]

Funny enough I just wrote down this very idea in my planner last week lol, so it's coming!

[@fogfish303]

for twinspell from what i remember conjurers calling saw a lot of play in the big mage deck and i remember forest’s aid seeing play in some token decks but i don’t remember that one as much

[@cogitoy7692]

For sure, that and Ray of Frost I'd say are the most notable. Conjurers calling created a whole deck though, very powerful card.

[@ahpauloh]

You're right! To be honest I'm not sure how I missed or forgot Conjurer's Calling lol

[@KMF-139]

I was just about to comment that i felt the power level of the cards were influencing your decisions a little too much but then you addressed at 26:04. I'm sure with power level appropriate cards all these keywords could work well (except you echo)

[@ahpauloh]

I feel like this year would've been the perfect opportunity to revisit some old keywords with an anniversary set, because like you said some of these keywords might actually be great, they were just on weak cards previously!

[@aleksandarkovacevic7138]

It is hard to make good non broken echo card

[@adrianpotat]

I know you didn't want to include evergreen keywords but rush came out during witchwood and I think it's one of the best keywords they ever added. Only being able to attack minions really plays into that board based gameplay I really like about hearthstone.

[@ahpauloh]

You're right, but for example discover also started off as an expansion keyword and I figured I needed to draw a hard line somewhere. I'll probably do another tier list at some point for the remaining keywords though!

[@Staklihen]

Rush was always mean to be an evergreen keyword like Poisonous in Un'Goro, Lifesteal in Frozen Throne or Elusive in Whizbang's Workshop.

[@BSN_100]

Love your content man. I think you can be like the next Rarran. Would love to see you do more fun stuff like this.

[@ahpauloh]

Thanks for the support! Rarran is definitely an inspiration of mine, and I have more video ideas on the way!

[@Bruh-el9js]

Mine would be something like S- Dredge, Finale, Forge, Manathirst, Miniaturize, Spellburst, Twinspell, Tradeable A- Corrupt, Overkill, Quest, Questline B- Echo, Frenzy, Inspire, Invoke (depending on how you interpret it, it could go to S), Gigantify, Quickdraw, Reborn (I love quest paladin) C- Colossal, Excavate, Infuse (even though Denathrius is my favorite wincon ever), Sidequest, Titanic D- Adapt, Magnetic (literally just a tempo boost), Recruit F- Honorable Kill, Dormant

[@ahpauloh]

Nice list! Funny how for some we're on the same wavelength and for others we're the opposite lol

[@nickelsremy9286]

Where is overheal? or outcast? is it because they are class specific?

[@ahpauloh]

Yeah, my logic was it didn't really seem like a good comparison to rate class specific keywords with general keywords, maybe I'll revisit them in a future tier list though!

[@fam3871]

What's not very clear is if you scored the keywords for how good they were implemented in the set or for their concept. Seems like you did a mash up of both but I think it's a very important distinction to make. For example joust I'd put it in F for how it was executed, but probably around B for the concept of rewarding higher cost builds since I like more control oriented gameplay.

[@fam3871]

25:47 I'm glad you realized this on your own half way into the video tho 😅

[@ahpauloh]

I agree 100% that I could've been more clear on that from the beginning, and that's something I've tried to improve in future tier lists!

[@jonathanantariksa8088]

Video idea: best and worst keyword combinations Some examples: good pairing= deathrattle & reborn, divine shield & lifesteal bad pairing= rush & stealth, taunt & windfury

[@ahpauloh]

Good idea! This reminds me Paladin's Fossilized Kaleidosaur, I always laugh when it gets combos that don't work together.

[@Staklihen]

Divine Shield is good with Taunt and with Rush.

[@daleodorito]

This is entirely wrong based on that you are basically analyzing how strong the cards with these keywords are, instead of how good the keyword in itself is. And the true way to tell if a keyword is good is "it is in flavour, fun, engaging and creates design space?". By this definition, tradeable for example, although pretty strong and fun to use due to the agency you have with it, doesn't really add much to desing, you just stick it to ANYTHING and it is inmediatly better, with little though of flavour into it, and doesn't really inspires much derivative desing; so it should probably be a B, low A at most. Inspire on the other hand is AMAZING as a keyword, it just superpoorly used. It's basically using the one thing Hearthstone have that is mostly unique from other big tgcs, your hero power. Basically is a trigger effect that you can do once per turn (mostly) on command and it costs you a resource, while also getting the use of whatever is your hero power, it is actually pretty interesting. If they had kept that when hero cards were introduced it would have popped up. On the other hand I fucking hate excavate or titan, cause they mean nothing in their own, like it's basically "this card gives you access to X ability that we are not specifiying", like... They just entirely rely on more explanation than just the keyword, they are superobscure. But for some reason I love Adapt, cause it is just "your minion is bigger..." "... in somewhat of a random way", although it requieres to see more to fully understand, it is pretty easy to grasp on its own. I think it is a pretty fun way to buff a minion. Miniaturize just makes no sense in flavour for me... Like... Wtf is supposed to br happening there? Like... The minion in itself is giving you a toy version of itself? I don't get it. The idea is cool, and the ways they used it is very good, but I think it missfires the flavour entirely.

[@Staklihen]

Now that the mini-set is out, what do you think of Gigantify?

[@ahpauloh]

So the mini set definitely didn't put miniaturize into S tier like I suggested lol. Also I think Gigantify is cool in the sense that they added a new keyword for a mini set, but I feel like it was so underutilized and underwhelming. I feel like it's not really fair to rate it considering it's not a fully fleshed out keyword, but I feel like it's a C unfortunately. But it's less because the keyword sucks and more because the cards for it suck.

[@td4n]

I am very surprised that you rated Invoke so high; I can not imagine putting it above the C tier.

[@ahpauloh]

I'm a sucker for build around cards like Galakrond and C'Thun lol

[@BLUEBOYISLEDGE]

no mention of clown druid?

[@ahpauloh]

I forgot about that deck!

[@fam3871]

Yeah Volcanosaur was the freebie and it costed 7 mana 😅

[@sombrego2260]

I think Inspire was a great keyword the problem it had was that the hero power at 2 cost felt steep back then for some classes that had worse hero power or bad synergy with their deck. But I have very fond memories of some Inspire cards that gave more umph to some underutilized hero powers (Priest and Shamn for example had an incentive to use their hero power when they wouldn't otherwise which is not a bad thing imho).

[@ahpauloh]

I agree, it can be hard to evaluate the keyword when the cards with it were so bad. I wish they'd revisit some older keywords with more modern cards!

[@sombrego2260]

I would love Excavate a lot more if the freaking Shamn version legendary excavate wasn't that stupid Murloc that can completely ruin your deck and make you lose the game instantly. I hate how much they constantly push the RNG evolution concept onto shaman. It's fine when it's optional but it's the only class with excavate where you can ruin your entire deck by playing it. I basically ended up excavating altogether on my Shaman because of the murloc.

[@ahpauloh]

For sure, especially since you can't Shudderblock the battlecry with the way it currently works. My next tier list is for the excavate treasures though so stay tuned!

[@madnessoverload7824]

Dredge is SSS tier in terms of flavor.

[@RealDeWatch]

Now imagine playing Mage 😭 and having access to barely any of these

[@cogitoy7692]

Mage has had pretty much all of them lol

[@RealDeWatch]

@@cogitoy7692 you must not be playing wild then

[@ahpauloh]

Yeah Mage definitely got the short end of the stick for some of these!

[@johnnyjean4285]

Nice theme

[@kevinlu9739]

No way excavate and miniaturize gets robbed by forge/trade and invoke

[@rory9975]

Pretty sure warpath was very popular

[@ahpauloh]

I could be wrong, but I remember it maybe being a one of in slower Warrior decks, I don't remember it ever being like a two copy staple or anything. But that was a long time ago so I could be wrong lol

[@maxwachinski5087]

Not showing galvadon for adapt is preposterous!

[@ahpauloh]

That definitely should've been included! I was only looking at collectible cards when getting examples and totally forgot about it.

[@digusup]

Babe peak just dropped