How good is Hearthstone ‘Forged in the Barrens’ really?

Hearthstone’s newest card expansion already has several weeks under its belt. The meta shifted several times since the start of the expansion and new deck combos are explored daily.

With all the added changes to the game, and a different approach to deck building, how good is Forged in the Barrens really?

The Hearthstone Meta

The first expansion in the year of the Gryphon also marked the introduction of the new Core set. This new Core Set replaced the previous Basic and Classic sets, and it consists of 235 cards from both this expansion and old ones. This is an effort from Blizzard to up the attractiveness of the game to existing and new players – in other words, it’s supposed to renew interest in the cardgame.

And interest has risen substantially over the past month, with nearly 200k active players on average, and most notably viewership numbers on Hearthstone Youtubers like Trump, Dekkster, Roffle and RegisKillbin rising on average.

“The Year of the Gryphon will be yet another exciting and eventful year filled with new content and new experiences in Hearthstone,” said J. Allen Brack upon release, and he hasn’t been proven wrong yet.

The new meta has given us interesting decks across all classes, with No Minion Mage and Secret Paladin taking the cake for most attractive decks to play. Control Warlock and Rush Warrior are the second best in terms of player appeal. Interestingly, all classes are seeing a lot of play all the way to Legend, which is a healthy result meta-wise. Check our Best Hearthstone Decks article to find what works best right now.

Nothing is perfectly balanced of course, and HS devs will keep tweaking cards and classes as we move along. But overall, this season is shaping up to be one of the more stables ones to date.

New and improved

Ranked Spells, Legendary Mercenaries and Frenzy have added a new dimension to the game. New ranked spells like Conditioning and Wicked Stab have shifted how opening and mid game hands are played, and added a layer of strategy that was needed in the game.

For returning players, Hearthstone has an easier path to get back into the game than ever before. Youtuber Old Guardian summarized the entire experience in a very informative video linked below.

To answer the question that started this entire article; “How good is Forged in the Barrens really?” – I have to say it’s one of the best expansions for returning players to pick up Hearthstone once again. A steady stream of content from creators, on top of Hearthstones very own mini events like the Hearthstone Crossroads Inn-vitational are really helping the game retain its appeal.

If you’ve dabbled with Heartstone in the past, now is definitely a good time to come back and check in with this title. Forged in the Barrens is a really good expansion for it.

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