As the Year of the Hydra kicks off, it's finally time to don our deep-sea diving equipment and head to Zin-Azhari! Voyage to the Sunken City is coming, and the refreshed Core set along with brand new cards are set to make quite the colossal splash. It's time to ask content creators from across the Hearthstone universe which of these cards are poised to make the greatest impact.
We asked 24 content creators to rank all 10 Colossal minion cards from best to worst. After we get 2 weeks of data from the new expansion, we will revisit these predictions with the data we've gathered to reward the player who was most accurate!
Special thanks to all the friends who contributed their predictions! Thijs, RidiculousHat, SidisiTV, RegisKillbin, Rarran, Languagehacker, Meatman, FunkiMonki, Jambre, TheHousewife, ClarkHELLSCREAM, FenoHS, Warshack, DracoCatt, WickedGood, Jia, Pizza, NayaraSylvestre, blisterguy, Dmoney, Edelweiss, L0rinda, Superior David, & heartkween!
All players judged these cards against one another and ranked them with 1st being their best pick and 10th being the worst. Let's see how these colossal minions are slated to perform according to them:
The greatest potential with Xhilag would seem to be pairing it with Sigil of Reckoning, Faceless Manipulator, and other means of maximizing its effects as early as possible. If those Stalks live long, they'll wreak terror, but it seems like most content creators are skeptical that it'll be able to.
Colaque seems a solid minion for controlling the board and extending the game. But with Druid's massive amount of meta cards rotating out of Standard, it remains to be seen if the class will remain competitive.
The hydra we were waiting for seems to be a massive board control tool to swing the game. Hunter hasn't historically had a great deal of effective late game strategies, but with Beast Hunter's rise in the end of the Year of the Gryphon, perhaps these heads will be sprouting up quite a bit in the days to come.
Ah, Mech Mage. We missed you. Gaia's immediate impact on the board is undeniably significant, and paired with the other Mech cards from this expansion, it may be one of the biggest players in the archetype. Most content creators see this potential and are expecting big things from this big robot.
Dredge's initial reveal was met with the criticism of lack of impact. The Leviathan changes that narrative significantly with its appendage allowing you to draw that card immediately. (Just make sure you attack in the right order!) Most creators deemed this a significant player in Paladin's Libram-less arsenal.
Just because it has Lifesteal doesn't mean it's bound to be effective. Blackwater Behemoth's greatest strength may be against strategies that revolve around single big minions. But with all the other Colossal minions seeing play, it may not be the right time for this Behemoth to be the right inclusion.
Weapon Rogue may have had the spotlight for weapons in the past, but watch out for the crabby claws to take over the class. Any Rogue deck may love just having the additional reach that the claws of Crabatoa offer.
After seeing so many Colossal minions with end of turn effects or Rush, it's hard to get around Glugg's relative low impact on the board. The Taunt effects are nice, but playing this on turn 7 gives your opponent a lot of margin to deal with it and the following board. It's likely this that has many creators skeptical.
Welcome to the most un-agreed upon minion of the bunch. Gigafin's spread is wide, and it could be for a number of reasons. It's hard to deny its impact when everything goes according to plan. But without an instant way to kill the Maw, is it worth hoping that things go your way? It's also yet to be seen just how effective the Control Warlock and Murloc Warlock archetypes that this fits in are.
Nellie also garnered a wide variety of opinions from creators, likely rooted in the card not seeming to be of great value but Warrior decks fairing well. It seems too slow to fit in Quest Warrior, but what about the value you gain from its inclusion in Control Warrior? Time will tell.
The boldest predictions here?
The Housewife and L0rinda could not be less impressed by the sea-dwelling crustacean.
Superior David believes that his Priestly ways and Blackwater Behemoth will rock the Hearthstone world.
Rarran's calling that Mech Mage fans are going to be giga-disappointed with Gaia.
Check out all the guesses of your favorite creators below:
We'll post again in a couple of weeks to recap how right or wrong these players were and will give 20 HSReplay.net Premium subscriptions as well as the title "The Oracle" to the most accurate predictor (according to our stats) at that time.
Updated 4/28/22: WE HAVE A WINNER! Here are the results of how the Colossal minions panned out over the first 2 weeks of Standard Hearthstone. Rankings were determined by Deck Winrate including each hero card from ranks Diamond-Legend since Alterac Valley's release.
- Nellie, the Great Thresher - 56.7%
- Gaia, the Techntonic - 53.6%
- The Leviathan - 52.4%
- Crabatoa - 52.2%
- Glugg the Gulper - 50.6%
- Hydralodon - 47.6%
- Colaque - 46.8%
- Gigafin - 44.7%
- Xhilag of the Abyss - 42.6%
- Blackwater Behemoth - 38.1%
We used a different system to declare a winner in this round of the Oracle Awards. Instead of rewarding a point for each exact correct prediction, we gave predictors points based on how far away each prediction was from the actual result. With this system, the least points you got, the more accurate your prediction was. We are happy to announce that DracoCatt is our Oracle for the Voyage to the Sunken City expansion!
Our algorithms actually issued a TIE for first place. As a tiebreaker, we decided to give the nod to the prediction that most mirrored the top 5. By a single selection, DracoCatt got the edge above Warshack. Both of these creators had incredible predictions, but there can only be one Oracle.
As part of his prize, DracoCatt will be given 20 HSReplay.net Premium codes to give out to the community! We want to give another big "thank you" to all the awesome people who contributed their predictions. Here are the top 10 submissions for this round:
As the meta continues to shift daily, stay tuned to HSReplay.net to stay ahead and in touch with all the archetype developments!
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