“I Can’t Play Wild Because I Don’t Have the Cards For It”
Au contraire! Even if you haven’t been playing Hearthstone for years, you’re probably closer to building competitive decks in Wild than you think. Most Wild lists only include a handful of Wild-exclusive cards, and if you already know what kinds of decks you like to play, you can probably craft the few Wild cards you’re missing to be able to have a meta deck in Wild without breaking your dust budget. Even better, most of the really critical Wild-exclusive cards are common, so you can probably build most of the meta-relevant decks in wild just from the dust refund from your nerfed Corridor Creepers.
Should You Buy the Adventures?
If you're serious about playing Wild, you should probably consider investing in Curse of Naxxramus and League of Explorers. Both sets have fairly substantial representation here, with at least one Legendary apiece. Assuming a generous average of 100 dust per pack (taking into account the chance for epic and legendary cards, plus golden cards), the cost of just crafting one legendary from each adventure is the equivalent of opening 16 packs of Classic cards. Currently, Curse of Naxxramus costs $25 USD, while League of Explorers costs $20 USD, while a 15 pack bundle also costs $20 USD. So given that both those sets will give you additional value for the purchase beyond just a single legendary card, those sets are worth the total $35 investment. If you can only afford to buy one adventure, buy League of Explorers; most of the legendary cards in that set have seen significant play at one point or another, while Loatheb is the only consistently played legendary from Naxxramus; most of the critical cards from Naxxramus are common and more easily crafted with dust. Blackrock Mountain is a bit more questionable, given that its most powerful legendary, Emperor Thaurissan, doesn't even make this list; that set should be your lowest priority, and most of the necessary cards are probably better just crafted a la carte.
Note that Wild sets are only available to purchase on Blizzard's web site. For your convenience, links to each adventure's store page are below:
A Note About This Guide
This guide is intended for the player with a fairly complete Standard collection who either dusted their Wild-exclusive cards or started playing after some of the Wild-exclusive sets rotated out of Standard, and wants to be able to build a couple of decks that can be competitive in the upcoming Brawlasseum. There are considerably more cards that are played or playable in Wild than are included in this list, but I've chosen to limit this guide to Wild-exclusive cards in deck lists featured in Blisterguy's Visual Guide to the Wild Meta, which is sourced from lineups that qualified for the upcoming Wild Open tournament:
There are many more decks that are viable in Wild that are not included in that list or this guide, but in an effort to keep Wild from feeling overwhelming for Standard players, this is limited to proven meta-relevant decks, along with a handful of decks not on that list that see frequent play in the current meta, such as Secret Paladin and Pirate Warrior. To that end, suggestions for possible Standard replacements for Wild-exclusive cards are not to suggest that these replacements will be at the same power level, but merely to separate cards that are absolutely necessary to play a particular archetype (Aviana in OTK Druid) from those that you should use if you have them, but may be lower on your crafting priority list if available dust is a concern (Old Murk-Eye in Murloc Paladin). Also, if a particular deck archetype is not listed here (some notable omissions that didn't make the cut are Secret Hunter, Aggro Druid, and any rogue archetypes), that doesn't mean it's not worth pursuing or that cards needed for that deck aren't worth crafting if that's a deck type that interests you. Wild is a much more forgiving environment for deck building; feel free to experiment and maybe cards from your deck will be on the next version of this guide!
Warlock
Mal’ganis
Found in: Naga Giants Warlock, Cubelock
Rarity: Legendary
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: None
The original Void Daddy, turns out a minion that can make you immune while it's on the board and buffs your other demons is pretty good in a deck that plays, copies, and resurrects a lot of demons. Mal'ganis certainly makes Cubelock much better in Wild, but if you don't already own it, the deck is still very playable without it. Against anyone who's played against Wild Cubelock before, just the threat of Mal'Ganis being in the deck may be somewhat effective, even if the card itself isn't actually there.
Voidcaller
Found in: Naga Giants Warlock, Cubelock
Rarity: Common
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: Skull of the Man'ari
Why doesn't Cubelock in Wild usually run Skull of the Man'ari, you ask? Because you can just have your demons give you more demons, of course! Voidcaller does what Skull does, only more efficiently, and without the drawbacks that the weapon has (dead in the late game, vulnerable to weapon removal, etc.), not to mention you can get it from Possessed Lackey, and it disincentivizes your opponent from using AoE because they don't want to find out what's in the box. You can still play Skull in Wild Cubelock, but don't be surprised if you're outclassed by the Voidcaller build, and at 80 dust, this is a fairly significant upgrade over the weapon to boot.
Darkbomb
Found in: Naga Giants Warlock, Cubelock
Rarity: Common
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: Lesser Onyx Spellstone, Shadow Bolt
Frostbolt for Warlock? Seems good! It seems kind of absurd in retrospect that Warlock was given direct damage that can target face with no restrictions, but that's the kind of expansion Goblins vs Gnomes was. If you have Darkbomb, you should use it. If not, there are other cards that you probably have that will let you do 3 or 4 damage inexpensively, though they won't provide you with burst damage to end a close game.
Paladin
Shielded Minibot
Found in: Murloc Paladin, Secret Paladin, Midrange Paladin
Rarity: Common
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: None
Just like Shaman, Paladin was in a pretty terrible spot prior to Goblins vs Gnomes, which is why it got a 2-mana 2/2 with Divine Shield that became an auto include in every Paladin deck until it rotated out. If you’re going to play Paladin in Wild you really ought to have two Shielded Minibots; nothing is going to replace them in terms of value. This is one of the best uses of 80 dust in the game.
Muster For Battle
Found in: Murloc Paladin, Secret Paladin, Midrange Paladin
Rarity: Rare
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: Rallying Blade, Truesilver Champion
The other omnipresent Paladin card until the Standard format came around, Muster for Battle is one of the best deals for 3 mana; a 1/4 weapon and 3 Silver Hand Recruits in one card makes Patches the Pirate seem like a bum deal. Unlike Shielded Minibot, though, Muster isn’t quite as mandatory now, especially given how many Warlocks are in the meta; dropping 1/1 minions on the board just gives Defile a running start. Some Paladin decks drop Muster for Rallying Blade, given the number of Divine Shielded minions that it can buff. If you don’t have two copies of Muster and you’re not playing specifically Midrange Paladin, which revolves around Silver Hand Recruit synergies, that should be a fair swap.
Quartermaster
Found in: Midrange Paladin
Rarity: Epic
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: Level Up!
If you’re playing Midrange Paladin, you’re dropping lots of Silver Hand Recruits on the board. And if you’re doing that, Quartermaster can turn them into burst damage for sneaky lethal or just for reclaiming board. Kobolds and Catacombs introduced Level Up!, which does almost the same thing except without the extra 2/5 body. If you have that card and not Quartermaster, that should fill in just fine. If you have neither, Quartermaster is a staple of Wild Midrange Paladin and Level Up! is sporadically included in the Standard version of the deck, so Quartermaster is probably the safer card to craft if you’re intending to play Wild for a while.
Avenge
Found in: Secret Paladin
Rarity: Common
Set: Curse of Naxxramus
Possible Substitutes: None
This is the secret that made Secret Paladin such a menace the first time around; while Paladin secrets can all be hard to play around, giving another minion on the board a buff when one minion dies makes all the other board-centric secrets much more difficult to play around. When it's pulled out along with Redemption and Noble Sacrifice with Mysterious Challenger, any attack gets blocked, the 2/1 comes back to life and another minion (usually the 6/6) gets bigger. This isn't strictly necessary to play Secret Paladin, but Mysterious Challenger will be much less impressive if you don't have it.
Competitive Spirit
Found in: Secret Paladin
Rarity: Rare
Set: The Grand Tournament
Possible Substitutes: Any other Paladin Secret
Another part of the classic secret package for Secret Paladin, Competitive Spirit buffs whichever minions survive the initial Mysterious Challeger turn. Unlike Avenge, though, Competitive Spirit is much more replaceable because the effect isn't nearly as potent, and the fact that it's a rare makes it a better candidate for a budget replacement.
Mysterious Challenger
Found in: Secret Paladin
Rarity: Epic
Set: The Grand Tournament
Possible Substitutes: None
"Who am I? None of your business." If you're newer to the game, that voice line may not strike terror into your heart, but it very well could once you enter the Wild Brawl. Mysterious Challenger is the reason you play Secret Paladin. It presents an independent threat, pulls several cards out of your deck to improve future draws, and that leads to chaining threat after threat to end the game quickly after that. If you never got the opportunity to play Secret Paladin the first time around and you have 800 dust, it's worth it to experience a part of Hearthstone history. But if you don't have the dust or two copies of this card, find a different paladin deck to play; the deck is a collection of underwhelming cards without it.
Anyfin Can Happen
Found in: Secret Paladin
Rarity: Rare
Set: League of Explorers
Possible Substitutes: None
Mrrggl! MRRGGL! It didn't take long after Anyfin was released for deckbuilders to figure out that the optimal murlocs to resurrect are two copies of Bluegill Warrior, two copies of Murloc Warleader, and Old-Murk Eye. When the full combo is resurrected the first time, the chargers combine for 24 damage, which is often enough to end the game on the spot. Should that not be enough, the murlocs that died from the first Anyfin get resurrected in the second, which totals upward of 30 damage. The current version of Anyfin combines those murlocs with the Secret Paladin package; between Mysterious Challenger pulling secrets out of the deck, two copies of Call to Arms, and Finja pulling additional murlocs out, the deck can cycle to draw all the murlocs and Anyfin very quickly and then unleash a fishy assault that would make Jaws jealous. If you don't have Anyfin, there are other versions of either Murloc Paladin or Secret Paladin that are both viable, but make sure the list you choose doesn't just take out Anyfin and swap in two other cards, because the non-Anyfin versions of both of those decks are built very differently.
Druid
Aviana
Found in: Malygos Druid
Rarity: Legendary
Set: The Grand Tournament
Possible Substitutes: None
The combination of Aviana and Kun has taken different forms over the year since Kun was printed. They all start with Aviana reducing your minions' costs to 1, and Kun using that one remaining mana to refresh your mana crystals. The current builds involve summoning Ixlid to copy subsequent minions, then as many copies of Malygos as possible, then hitting your opponent in the face for obscene amounts of direct damage. This deck is expensive to begin with, including a number of legendary minions who are technically legal in Standard but rarely see play in that format, so if you don't have most of the cards for this deck you should probably look in the direction of Jade Druid, and Aviana is arguably the most critical part of the combo. (In case you're wondering, by the way, the plural of Malygos is Malygeese.)
Living Roots
Found in: Malygos Druid
Rarity: Common
Set: The Grand Tournament
Possible Substitutes: None
Living Roots really only sees play in Malygos Druid, and then just for additional direct damage that can be played cheaply. If you've already spent the dust for the rest of the cards in that deck, another 80 dust is a drop in the bucket. In any other Druid deck you can get away without this card.
Poison Seeds
Found in: Malygos Druid
Rarity: Common
Set: Curse of Naxxramus
Possible Substitutes:
Poison Seeds is a sneaky way to address things like boards of buffed Murlocs, or Naga Sea Witch and her entourage of giants. If you're playing any non-aggro Druid in Wild, you need two copies of this card; Druid doesn't have any answer to threatening board states without it. This card combined with Starfall acts similar to Paladin's Equality/Consecration combo, and followed by Spreading Plague can add up to a lot of stall to recover on board.
(If you've been playing for long enough to remember Poison Seeds and are wondering why it's suddenly seeing play, it got overlooked before the first Standard rotation because there was no reason to play board clears at the time; if you were playing Force of Nature/Savage Roar (and if you were playing Druid at the time, you certainly were), your board was always the one getting cleared.)
Mage
Ice Lance
Found in: Secret Mage
Rarity: Common
Set: Classic Hall of Fame
Possible Substitutes: Firelands Portal, Primordial Glyph
Good news! If you were playing before this time last year, chances are you have Ice Lances, because Blizzard gave you the dust for them pre-emptively when they were moved to the Hall of Fame. Secret Mage takes advantage of Ice Lance's synergy with Frostbolt to provide extreme burst damage, which makes the deck much more streamlined than in Standard. You can probably replace it with any other efficient burn spell if you don't have it; basically any spell from the Standard version of Secret Mage should fit in nicely.
Forgotten Torch
Found in: Secret Mage
Rarity: Common
Set: League of Explorers
Possible Substitutes: None
Forgotten Torch is the other factor in Wild Secret Mage that provides a lot of additional burn potential; it provides 3 damage up front, and then another 6 later, which makes Aluneth that much more potent, when it can draw 3 mana Roaring Torches in addition to 4 mana Fireballs late in the game. If you have to choose between crafting this or Ice Lance for Secret Mage, craft Torches.
Priest
Resurrect
Found in: Big Priest
Rarity: Rare
Set: Blackrock Mountain
Possible Substitutes: None
If you thought Big Priest in Standard was annoying to play against, what if it had two more cards that could resurrect minions for 2 mana apiece? That's something that happens in Wild; Barnes on turn 4 into double Resurrect on turn 5 is a play that is possible and sometimes just wins you games on the spot. Big Priest is already an expensive deck, but if you're even considering playing it in Wild you probably have most of the cards for the Standard version already, so this is 200 dust you should absolutely spend if that's a route you want to go.
Lightbomb
Found in: Big Priest
Rarity: Epic
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: Dragonfire Potion
Lightbomb was Priest's nuclear option back before Dragonfire Potion and Psychic Scream were causing its opponents fits. In the current Wild meta, it's necessary to react to a board of Naga Sea Witch and Giants, or else you just lose on the spot. Most Big Priest lists only run one copy, and it's worth the investment, but you can probably slot Dragonfire Potion in its place if need be; it'll be mostly as effective against anything that's not an 8/8 on turn 5.
Excavated Evil
Found in: Big Priest
Rarity: Rare
Set: League of Explorers
Possible Substitutes: Dragonfire Potion
Excavated Evil was Priest's best board clear for a while after Lightbomb rotated out and before Dragonfire Potion came in, and it's still useful against wide Paladin boards. Like Lightbomb, it's probably replaced fairly well with Dragonfire Potion if you've used up your dust budget on the rest of the cards for the deck.
Velen’s Chosen
Found in: Inner Fire Priest
Rarity: Common
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: None
Before Velen's Chosen was an excellent Hearthstone podcast, it was an excellent buff card, and specifically in Inner Fire Combo Priest, being able to be able to give a minion 4 extra health for 3 mana makes building a gigantic minion much easier. It's not strictly necessary; you can still collect Divine Spirits and Power Word: Shields and Kabal Talonpriests to get there as in Standard, but the deck will perform much more consistently with this card in the deck.
Twilight Whelp
Found in: Inner Fire Priest
Rarity: Common
Set: Blackrock Mountain
Possible Substitutes: Tar Creeper
Twilight Whelp was one of the best early drops Priest had for a long time, and in Inner Fire Combo Priest, it acts both as a dragon activator and as a minion that can be buffed to create a 30/30 monstrosity eventually. The Wild list cuts Tar Creeper for the Whelp, so that could be put back in if you're missing baby dragons in your collection.
Shaman
Tunnel Trogg
Found in: Aggro Shaman
Rarity: Common
Set: League of Explorers
Possible Substitutes: None
Tunnel Trogg and Totem Golem are the reason that Aggro Shaman is still viable in Wild and not in Standard. Being able to take the drawback of Overload and turn it into an asset on a 1 mana 1/3 is irreplaceable.
Totem Golem
Found in: Aggro Shaman
Rarity: Common
Set: The Grand Tournament
Possible Substitutes: None
The combination of a 2 mana 3/4 along with the fact that Tunnel Trogg gets buffed by playing this card is incredibly powerful. You can play Aggro Shaman without this card, but you probably shouldn’t.
Crackle
Found in: Aggro Shaman
Rarity: Common
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: Lava Shock, Leeroy Jenkins
The way Aggro Shaman plays in Wild is vey much like how Secret Mage plays in Standard (and Wild, for that matter): The deck tries to accumulate as much chip damage via minions as possible early and then transition to burning face once the opponent starts putting taunts in the way. The Wild version therefore runs nearly all the burn spells that can target face: Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst, Jade Lightning, and the only Wild-exclusive card, Crackle. You can probably replace this with some other form of minion damage, but given how many taunts will likely be in play by the end game, you may lose some otherwise winnable games by a couple of points of damage. If you're already spending dust on Tunnel Trogg and Totem Golem, another 80 dust should be a good investment in two copies of Crackle as well.
Whirling Zap-o-Matic
Found in: Aggro Shaman
Rarity: Common
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: Vicious Fledgling
If you didn’t play Hearthstone before the first Standard year, this is how bad Shaman was back then: They printed a 2 mana 3/2 with Windfury with no drawback, and that still wasn’t enough to make Shaman a viable class at the time. Given how aggressive the current Shaman build is, this is a natural fit, but it’s also not 100% mandatory if you’ve already spent some dust on the other cards above; Vicious Fledgling will certainly be a step down, but that tends to get Windfury often enough that it can snowball games similarly to Zap-o-Matic. You’ll miss getting to hear “Spinning up!” repeatedly, though, and it may be worth the 40 dust just for that alone.
Warrior
Death’s Bite
Found in: Pirate Warrior
Rarity: Rare Set: Curse of Naxxramus
Possible Substitutes: Fiery War Axe, Arcanite Reaper
Pirate Warrior runs this in Wild because it’s more powerful than Fiery War Axe and the deathrattle triggers Frothing Berserker’s text for large potential burst damage. Ultimately, though, it’s not critical for the deck; any large weapon will do.
Neutral
Loatheb
Found in: Too many to list
Rarity: Legendary
Set: Curse of Naxxramus
Possible Substitutes: None
If you're going to only craft one legendary minion, or if you're looking for an excuse to purchase Curse of Naxxramus, this is it. Loatheb is a fairly common inclusion in a wide variety of lists, because it's a reasonably statted minion that shuts down most decks' power turns suddenly. It's generally replaceable, but if you're serious about competing in Wild, you should have Loatheb in your collection.
Naga Sea Witch
Found in: Naga Giants Warlock
Rarity: Epic
Set: League of Explorers
Possible Substitutes: None
If you haven't paid any attention to Wild in the past year or so, this probably comes as a surprise that Naga Sea Witch is a card worth crafting, since it saw no play at all while it was legal in Standard. What happened is a change to the way Naga Sea Witch's effect behaves that makes it possible to play Naga Sea Witch and any combination of Mountain Giants, Molten Giants, and Clockwork Giants in the same turn, often on turn 5. Even if you have a full standard collection, this deck can be expensive to assemble, since Naga Sea Witch and the Giants are all epic cards, but they are all necessary to assemble the combo consistently enough.
Clockwork Giant
Found in: Naga Giants Warlock
Rarity: Epic
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: None
If you're playing Naga Giants Warlock, this is one of the necessary giants that makes the deck tick. If you want the combo to go off like clockwork, it's time to craft this card before it's too late.
(...I'll see myself out.)
Mad Scientist
Found in: Secret Mage
Rarity: Common
Set: Curse of Naxxramus
Possible Substitutes: Tar Creeper, Glacial Shard, Fire Fly
Mad Scientist is used in decks that run more than a handful of secrets to get them out of the deck and into play, both to make turns awkward for the opponent as well as to improve future draws. Secret Mage still has Arcanologists in Wild to draw secrets out of the deck, so while there really isn't any other minion that does what Mad Scientist does, you also can substitute it with another tempo-friendly minion and not miss too much.
Ragnaros, the Firelord
Found in: Big Priest
Rarity: Legendary
Set: Classic Hall of Fame
Possible Substitutes: Ysera
If the last time you checked in with our fiery friend Ragnaros was at his induction to the Hall of Fame, you might expect it would be an auto-include in every meta deck. The decks in Wild tend to lean so hard on synergies, however, that a generally "just good" card like Ragnaros gets cut as lists get refined. The one deck where Ragnaros still shines is in Big Priest, taking the slot that Ysera occupies in Standard; turns out, a random blast of 8 damage coming out of Barnes or Shadow Essence is pretty good, and it's even better when you can summon multiple copies in a single turn. If your collection started after Ragnaros was a mandatory craft or you decided to double up on the Hall of Fame dust and disenchanted it, Ysera still works well in Big Priest as a substitute.
Sylvanas Windrunner
Found in: Cubelock
Rarity: Legendary
Set: Classic Hall of Fame
Possible Substitutes: Any powerful deathrattle minion
Just like Ragnaros, Sylvanas has fallen out of favor as a default 30th card in most decks. She only sees play alongside N'zoth to capitalize on deathrattle synergies, and the only Wild meta deck that runs N'zoth is Cubelock. That said, you can see from playing that deck why this card needed to go to Wild only; combining Sylvanas with Carnivorous Cube and Dark Pact generates disgusting amounts of value. Much like Ragnaros in Big Priest, while you obviously want to play the deck with Sylvanas, you can certainly play Cubelock without her in the deck.
Sir Finley Mrrgglton
Found in: Aggro Shaman, Pirate Warrior, Murloc Paladin
Rarity: Legendary
Set: League of Explorers
Possible Substitutes: None
Everyone's favorite British Murloc mainly sees play in aggressive decks where you'd rather your hero power be Life Tap, Steady Shot or Fireblast. In Murloc Paladin he does double duty, because he also happens to be a 1-mana 1/3 Murloc. As was the case when Finley was available in Standard, he's far from mandatory for those decks, but the difference between getting one of those hero powers and playing a totem or armoring up every turn can make a difference in games where you draw Finley early enough to get value from him. There isn't any direct substitute for what Finley provides, but any inexpensive aggressive card can usually replace him in any given list.
Emperor Thaurissan
Found in: Cubelock
Rarity: Legendary
Set: Blackrock Mountain
Possible Substitutes: None
Emperor Thaurissan is most often seen in combo-based decks where the combined cost of all the required cards is higher than ten mana. While this isn't strictly necessary for Cubelock, it runs enough expensive cards that discounting something like N'zoth or Bloodreaver Gul'Dan can allow for some additional cards to be played alongside those big drops, especially if it can duplicated by a Carnivorous Cube. Thaurissan is more of a nice to have in this deck, though, so feel free to just include another card from your Standard Cubelock list if you don't have it.
Twilight Guardian
Found in: Inner Fire Priest
Rarity: Epic
Set: The Grand Tournament
Possible Substitutes: Twilight Drake
Back before Duskbreaker, Twilight Guardian was the dragon priest's 4-drop of choice, because a 3/6 taunt for 4 is pretty good value. In Inner Fire Combo Priest, the starting health is very relevant, because it will take fewer buff cards to get it into lethal range. That said, it can be a tough sell to spend 800 dust on two copies, especially if you're not already adept at playing combo priest, because it can be a fairly difficult deck to learn. The Wild versions of this deck tend to cut Twilight Drake in favor of Twilight Guardian, since the latter is more consistently at high health, but Twilight Drake is more than reasonable to play in Wild if Guardians are too rich for your blood.
Old Murk-Eye
Found in: Murloc Paladin, Secret Paladin
Rarity: Legendary
Set: Classic Hall of Fame
Possible Substitutes: None
If you think Murloc Paladin is powerful in Standard, get ready to meet your new fishy overlord. Old Murk-Eye rotated out of Standard on a technicality before the existence of the Hall of Fame, since it wasn't technically a collectible card as much as a hidden quest reward for collecting one of each Murloc in the game. At 2/4 and growing with the other Murlocs on board, it's a natural fit for both the aggressive Murloc Paladin and the more midrange versions that use Anyfin Can Happen as a finisher. That said, neither version is completely unplayable without Murk-Eye; as any Murloc Paladin player in Standard can attest, the aggressive version has plenty of burst without him, and while you will often need to play both copies of Anyfin to get to lethal damage from the second copy, Anyfin Paladin was played consistently without Old Murk-Eye the year after he rotated and was still a powerful deck. (Just don't put in another Murloc in place of Murk-Eye in the Anyfin lists; any Murloc that doesn't have charge dilutes the potential damage of playing Anyfin Can Happen, especially on the second copy where you'll likely have more dead Murlocs than you will available spots for them to spawn on the board.)
Haunted Creeper
Found in: Secret Paladin, Aggro Druid
Rarity: Common
Set: Curse of Naxxramus
Possible Substitutes: Tar Creeper, Glacial Shard, Fire Fly
While Haunted Creeper used to be a staple of aggressive and midrange decks, it now mainly is reserved for use in board-centric aggressive decks, where it can squeeze extra value from Paladin secrets such as Redemption, Competitive Spirit, and Avenge. Much like Mad Scientist, if this is the only card holding you back from playing one of those decks, any reasonable tempo-positive minion will work in its spot. Tar Creeper, Glacial Shard, or Fire Fly could all be reasonable substitutes.
Deathlord
Found in: Inner Fire Priest
Rarity: Rare
Set: Curse of Naxxramus
Possible Substitutes: Tar Creeper
Deathlord's utility is mainly that it's a huge taunt with a big butt that can be made even bigger with Divine Spirit and then hit face following Inner Fire. Tar Creeper fills the 3 mana slot in the Standard version of the list and should fill in just fine here as well if you're missing this card.
Ship’s Cannon
Found in: Pirate Warrior
Rarity: Common
Set: Goblins vs Gnomes
Possible Substitutes: None
This is the reason you play Pirate Warrior in Wild. Being able to drop Ship’s Cannon on turn 2 into two pirates and Patches turn 3, firing 6 points of random damage around the board, is both fun and effective. Don’t try to play Pirate Warrior without crafting two copies of this card.
Go Get Wild!
Good luck in the Brawl, and have fun! If you're looking for more resources for Wild strategy and decks, episodes of Off Curve and Walk to Work this week will focus on the format, as will my Twitch stream. For ongoing discussion of the Wild meta, also check out the Into The Wild podcast and the Wild Hearthstone subreddit. Thanks for reading!
If you like this content, please consider subscribing to my weekly podcast, Off Curve, where I talk about Hearthstone while driving home on my commute. You can find it in iTunes and on Google Play. You can also follow me on Twitter and Twitch for more Hearthstone content. Thanks for reading!