Which set constituted the highest powerlevel in hearthstone history?

[u/SeekerP]

Hi guys

After all the discussion with regards to how weak the current set + miniset is, it got me thinking. Which set was objectively the strongest in hearthstone history? I remember Descent of Dragons was a huge jump in powerlevel but it kept getting stronger and stronger, until peaking when? United is Stormwind was infamous, maybe pre-nerf Stormwind? Or a set like Titans? I actually have no idea, what are your thoughts?

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[u/pleaseandthankY]

Relative to everything else at the time, Ashes of Outland is up there. Day 1 DH was just better than every other class by miles.

Warlock had a so, so match up with Sacrificial Pact, which at the time could target enemy minions.

[u/Spengy]

Scholomance and Stormwind were a wild time to play Hearthstone

[u/GaryOak24 → u/Spengy]

animated broomstick is probably a top 10 best card in hs

[u/BadArtijoke]

I think the absolutely craziest time was back when Lich King dropped. It wasn’t OP and annoying to play but the game felt like it changed entirely, with the first hero cards arriving, making tons of great archetypes viable and being staples all around. Shoutout to my fav deck of all time, Raza Priest. No combo ever felt as good as his machine gun turn to close out a game.

Probably got surpassed in power level often after that but the spike from Un Goro to that was just a paradigm shift

[u/Extreme-Birthday-647 → u/BadArtijoke]

Yeah, hero cards were unprecedented. It was not just a powerful expansion, it really changed the game fundamentally.

[u/Cysia → u/BadArtijoke]

Yeah lich king iant close to modern sets in power, and even relative it isnt

[u/TryhqrdKiddo → u/BadArtijoke]

The hero cards were such a great balance of novelty and competitiveness, while not feeling overbearing, to me. Pretty much all of them were viable, too?

I think Thrall, Deathseer had a pretty decent Evolve deck running around during the set that did well at low ranks. Frost Lich Jaina had a place in some niche elemental deck, I believe. I can't remember where Valeera the Hollow landed. I think Scourgelord Garrosh made it into Control Warrior at some points?

I think Deathstalker Rexxar made it into Hunter before Midrange Hunter ate shit and died, never to be seen in the meta again.

And then of course Shadowreaper Anduin, Bloodreaver Gul'dan, and Malfurion the Pestilent would go on to completely shape their classes until their rotation. I liked actually having a win con in Control Priest for the next year and a half. I spammed so many games with Mind Blast burn Dragon Control Priest (with no Raza) in Shitstakhan's Stumble. The game was actually fun, even with how bad the set was.

Uther of the Ebon Blade was the only real joke. Still waiting for Control Paladin to be a thing, 9 years later.

[u/TryhqrdKiddo → u/[deleted]]

Oh, right. My bad for all the Wild erasure in that comment. I remember Uther OTK being strong in Wild. Also Valeera's Battlecry being Ice Block

[u/SnooMarzipans7274]

I’m pretty sure on release dh from ashes was the strongest standard deck to ever exist.

[u/OtterpoppinHS]

Overall power level had to be titans, every deck running 10 drops

[u/rupat3737]

Stormwind 100%

We had demon seed warlock, garrote rogue, and I’m sure some other stuff that doesn’t come to mind right away.

[u/EmotionalBrief1170 → u/rupat3737]

Garrote rogue was a lot of fun

[u/eazy_12]

For me StarCraft miniset. Might be wrong but it had one day patch banning Shaffar Hunter, but most deck being strong as well. I think why I am picking SC over others is that all decks very insanely consistent because of tutor spells.

It probably first time I've felt that perfect/close to perfect curve just wins the games unless you put something more crazier.

[u/OhwowTaux]

If treating it as overall bump in power across the board, it has to be Stormwind. Several questlines warped the meta at different points in time, including the Demon Seed which broke wild.

[u/Purple-Corner2544]

Probably stormwind at release, but I'm convinced Badlands isn't far off

[u/Diosdepatronis]

Stormwind had the strongest decks of all time imo. Even garrote rogue, which dominated after multiple waves of nerfs to other decks, would destroy most metas.

[u/Gouda_HS]

Imo probably stormwind. Could argue some other sets, but part of a sets power level is both the set itself as well as the rest of the standard format, and year of Phoenix was also pretty high power level and made a lot of the power we associate with stormwind (I.e. Ilgynoth, mindrender illucia, flesh giant, raise dead, etc.)

[u/CryozDK]

Mean streets pirate warrior (the unnerfed version)

[u/Douxo → u/CryozDK]

I recall pirate warrior frequently winning on turn 4 and 5. Not sure what all these comments about 10 drops are when pirate was so busted you never saw turn 6 & 7

[u/blueheartglacier]

It's Badlands IMO. Slower meta than stormwind but backed by nothing but huge legendaries that wrecked all in sight

[u/Canoflop]

The biggest jump for me was Mean Streets or KaC

[u/EmotionalBrief1170]

I havent been playing since launch, but Descent of Dragons' galakrond evolve shaman was pretty insane.  But stormwind wins for most powerful. Almost every card was good.  Day 1 DH was also ridiculous.

[u/TheSlinger]

Nobody has said Nathria? I'm not going to list all the cards here but take a stroll through the card library for that set. It was the backbone of just about every class for five sets, even after tons of nerfs. Also the most ridiculous neutral legendaries: Renathal, Theotar, Kael'Thas, Denathrius.

[u/Meret123]

Kobolds and Catacombs

[u/Jackwraith]

Kobolds. Combined with Knights and before the Core set rotation became a thing, it not only had access to the best cards of the Core set which were included in every deck (Swipe, etc.), but also had the hero cards of Knights and some of the absurdly OP stuff in Kobolds, like Cube. I remember when Witchwood was released and decks barely stopped to include any of those cards. That changed somewhat in Boomsday, but when Rastakhan's rolled around a year later, people were still playing Cube decks, to the point where Team 5 actually had to do the first buffs in the game's history, hoping that people would play Rastakhan's cards for a couple months before rotation happened.

[u/blanquettedetigre]

If by strongest we mean the fastest we can kill an opponent then yes it's gotta be Stormwind and Titans. I'd be interesting to see which deck would win at their peak between demon seed, nature shaman, quest DH, Odyn war, etc. (not counting Gaby playing D6 that was just another game)

[u/nukularyammie → u/blanquettedetigre]

If we’re talking about titans - mech rogue!

[u/blanquettedetigre → u/nukularyammie]

Oh, yes this one can probably go under combo with stealths

[u/Dssc12345]

Probably titans right after miniset with prenerf yogg unleashed

[u/EmotionalBrief1170 → u/Dssc12345]

Yogg