Grim Patron: EVERY MEME, GET IN HERE!
Being a Lighter and Softer card game take on the Warcraft universe, you'd better believe Hearthstone has its share of memes.
General
You may not like it, but this is what good stats for the cost looks like.
- A now famous Reddit thread
where custom cards were generated by a neural network created some gems, though the two favorites are "ALL minions" and "Taunt. Taunt. Taunt. Taunt. Taunt. Taunt."- This was likely given a nod by Blizzard with the flavor text of Siamat (whose Battlecry allows you to choose two of Taunt, Rush, Windfury, and Divine Shield to give him), which simply reads "TAUNT. TAUNT." The 2022 April Fools' Day gag included a "Taunt Taunt" keyword that Taunted for your other Taunt minions.
- "please dont take away my deckslots" ExplanationThe officially-cited reason for why Hearthstone originally only allowed you to save nine decks at a time is that it would be "confusing to new players". Any time a player makes a significantly stupid mistake, such as buying the wrong card packs or not understanding certain cards, the comments will be full of people semi-jokingly worried that the game is too confusing and Blizzard will dumb it down as a result.
- Small indie company ExplanationWhen discussing how Hearthstone still lacks simple quality-of-life improvements or has massive bugs after many years, players jokingly say that the developers are a small indie company without the resources to fix it.
- Fun and Interactive ExplanationA sarcastic phrase complaining about decks that are not fun and interactive, and they vary depending on the metagame. Examples of such decks over the years are Face Hunter, Freeze Mage, Control Warrior and Aggro Shaman.
- (wherever it is) ExplanationSince the reveal of the C'thun cultist cards in Whispers of the Old Gods, which often include this phrase, it is often tagged on to statements, no matter what they're actually about.
- The best Hunter legendary is Savannah Highmane. ExplanationHunter legendaries are so consistently unplayable in competitive decks while Savannah Highmane is arguably the best non-legendary card in the original set due to its great statline and sticky deathrattle. This frequently results in people claiming that Savannah Highmane fills the niche for Hunter legendaries, and is such a great legendary you can include two of it in your deck.
- In its prime, the spell Call of the Wild (8 mana spell that summons all three Animal Companions) has been received this treatment as well for being incredibly mana-efficient to Hunter.
- I PLAY POT OF GREED! THIS ALLOWS ME TO DRAW TWO CARDS FROM MY DECK! ExplanationComparisons between Hearthstone's and Yugioh's design philosophies inevitably led to the comparison between Pot of Greed and Arcane Intellect, which are identical cards except Pot of Greed has no cost and is infinitely better. This has somehow snowballed into people bringing up Pot Of Greed at random in Hearthstone discussion.
- Prep, coin, concede ExplanationPlaying Preparation and then using the Coin is a very common error. Preparation makes the next spell you play cost less mana, and the Coin is a zero-cost spell that gives you one mana — completely wasting the effect of Preparation, if you played them in the wrong order. Usually people are so ashamed that they concede immediately.
- ORDER LUL ExplanationA more generic term used to mock terrible mistakes that ensue from playing cards in the wrong order. Prep-Coin is just the first of such errors.
- cue the Epic Sax Guy ExplanationCompilation channels, especially Trolden, inserted that song over particularly epic clips in the early days of the game, as both Hearthstone's launch and the Epic Sax Guy meme were pretty concurrent. This led to streamers playing the song on stream like an unofficial Hearthstone anthem. And when you stumble upon a Hearthstone fan work, there's a high chance it'll either use the epic sax riff or the characters inside mimic the Epic Sax Guy.
- "That's not how you sax, bro." ExplanationWhen someone does a sax-worthy combo, but doesn't get lethal, then gets immediately counter-lethaled or Hoist by Their Own Petard. It's especially popular with a Trolden edit with vocal splicing to make Malfurion say that line.
- Naxx Out! ExplanationSince Naxxramas was the first new card set, people will often ask if Naxx is out yet whenever someone notices something that's been in the game for years. It also happens when cards from Naxx get mentioned/played or even just every time a new expansion is announced.
- "Hey there, don't be scared." ExplanationThe Un'Goro trailer didn't come with a song, so the Hearthstone subreddit jokingly requested compensation. Ben Brode actually delivered on it with a surprisingly awesome rap.
- Ben Brode's laugh. ExplanationBecomes a meme when the RNG or game mechanic in general just screws you over, not to mention his status as Trolling Creator. Go on and listen to his laugh, and tell me if that's not an incredibly trollish laugh.
- Unicorn Priest ExplanationPriest was the worst class in the game in WotOG. Ben Brode at one point suggested that there could be a magical "unicorn" priest deck that was performing well but wasn't popular, leading players to joke that they had found Unicorn Priest whenever they lost to one. Thanks to the uproar over the underpowered card Purify and the (since taken down) fan video "Purity of the Cards", Unicorn Priest now usually refers to any Silence-based Priest deck. Made into an Ascended Meme in Whizbang's Workshop with the card Purifying Power, the artwork of which shows a unicorn.
- Anything related to Face Hunter, a deck that focuses on hitting the enemy hero (their "face") and ignores everything else. Exhibit A.
- If the face plays Taunt, me still go face/Face is the place ExplanationCatchphrases for Face Hunter, used to caricature the stereotypical Face Hunter as being dumb as a sack of bricks but still able to win by just hitting the face.
- SMOrc ExplanationAn emote on Twitch that represents a Space Marine Orc, which are known for being Dumb Muscle that blindly rushes a target to whack them in the face while ignoring everything else, much like Face Hunter ignores everything else to attack the enemy hero. Nowadays, aiming anything at the opponent's face is often referred to as "SMOrcing" for short.
- "11 + 4" or "(Fire) + (Frost) = ?" ExplanationBlizzcon 2013 had a game between Reckful and Kripparian, where Kripp was at 14 health while Reckful had Frostbolt (3 damage) and Pyroblast (10 damage) in hand and a Kobold Geomancer on the board (this was back when Pyroblast costed 8 mana); with the Geomancer's Spell Damage +1, Frostbolt would deal 4 damage and Pyroblast would hit for 11, thus netting him the game. Reckful completely overlooked the easy lethal and proceeded to Never Live It Down.
- The community has a tradition of creating "Honest Hearthstone cards", riffing on cards by taking them and changing their text/art to something humorous that reflects what they usually end up doing in-game. A few examples here.
- "I like your deck. I think I will TAKE IT!" ExplanationArch-Thief Rafaam's declaration before stealing the player's deck in his first fight in League of Explorers, which is generally considered one of the most memorable ones in the game. The meme also gets applied to cards with large-scale copying or stealing effects like King Togwaggle and Archbishop Benedictus. It also gained new life when Rafaam was revealed as the Big Bad for the Rise of Shadows expansion, usually snowcloned into "I like your X. I think I will TAKE IT!".
- Arch-Thief Rafaam being customarily referred to as RAFAAM, THE SUPREME ARCHAEOLOGIST (in all caps, of course).
- Rise of Shadows is just a Shrek the Third expansion ExplanationBoth the plot of Shrek the Third and Rise of Shadows center around a past villain that uses a Villain Song to convince other past villains to form a Big Bad Ensemble to ransack a well-known city.
- Jaina nerf ExplanationIn February 2019, Jaina's portrait was altered to cover up her cleavage (referred to euphemistically as a "Nerf" by fans). Since then, any female character with visible cleavage is referred to as being unnerfed.
- Class identity ExplanationOne of the most commonly cited reasons for putting a class card in the Hall of Fame by the dev team is to maintain a class's identity by addressing cards that go against it (rather than, say, the card itself being broken, although that may also play a role). This has become widely ridiculed by the fanbase for various reasons, from not addressing the real elephant in the room to taking out cards that fit the class's identity in World of Warcraft perfectly well (e.g. Mind Blast for Shadow Priests) to the dev team's view of class identity being inaccurate to what the class actually does (such as listing "card generation" as a weakness of Shaman, when it's been one of the two things keeping Shaman relevant in the meta since The Witchwood, the other being Shudderwock) to some classes not having a coherent identity to start with (Shaman, basically).
- Trump trading ExplanationIn reference to the streamer Trump, whose play style is to keep the enemy board clear as much as possible, even if that means attacking a big minion into a token rather than going face. The meme tends to go hand-in-hand with players who emulate that but don't understand when it's okay to actually go face, often losing games because they put on no pressure.
- Yes decks ExplanationA term for any challenge deck that is designed to kill yourself in the most spectacular, ridiculous way possible. Why would you do that? Because yes.
- Announcement of an announcement ExplanationA popular phrase mocking the Hearthstone team's penchant for announcing when they're going to be announcing something (and sometimes announcing when they're announcing when they're announcing something). It's been so bad in the past that, even if the reveal is only a few days away, people will still sarcastically comment this.
- X + Y = RANK 1 LEGEND ExplanationA meme format where the poster uses Microsoft Paint to present a completely impractical card combo, followed by the symbol for Rank 1 Legend as if to say it would beat any other deck in the format.
- "Dies to (X), bad card/(X) doesn't die to (Y)" note A common phrase when a card gets revealed , often ones that heavily power creeps an old one, with them saying that the card in question isn't strictly better than the old one due to the new card getting countered in a hyper-specific scenario that the old one is unaffected by, such as a new Beast being able to get killed by Hemet Nestingwary.
Individual Cards
Occasionally, a card itself becomes a meme, often as a result of having a memorable and gimmicky effect, being notoriously overpowered, or both. That card's voicelines will often become highly quotable as a result.
- The Defias Ringleader and their summoned ally became one of the first highly quoted cards in the game, with their use on the battlefield usually being accompanied by stylized depictions of the two cards and their voicelines in copypasta form.
(ง ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)ง This is our town, SCRUB (ง ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)ง(ง •̀_•́)ง Yeah beat it! (ง •̀_•́)ง
- Grim Patron, from the Blackrock Mountain adventure.note Grim Patron's effect summons another Patron if he takes damage and survives. The main deck that used this card, Patron Warrior, would combine this effect with Warsong Commander to summon a horde of charging Grim Patrons to decimate the opponent, leading to a lot of "Everyone, get in here!"
- It's always Huffer. ExplanationThe Hunter spell Animal Companion summons one of three random minions for three mana. The one most players don't want to see when playing against Hunter is Huffer, a 4/2 with Charge. Because of the Random Number God, this led to the meme "It's always Huffer". Became an Ascended Meme in The Grand Tournament, with the card Polymorph: Boar. It turns a minion into a 4/2 with Charge and its flavor text is... you guessed it!
- A lot of cards get the meme treatment through misinterpretations of their voice lines, with a few special mentions:
Mal'Ganis: "I am Mal'Ganis! I am A TURTLE!"actual line"I am Mal'Ganis! I am eternal!"
Hydrologist: "Yo nigga, I've done it!"actual line"Eureka! I've done it!"
Thrall: "Elephants guide me!"actual line"Elements guide me!"
Tirion Fordring: "Put your face in the light!"actual line"Put your faith in the Light!"
SI:7 Agent: "Heh, disguised toast."actual line"Heh, this guy's toast."
Quartermaster: "Two arms, men!"actual line"To arms, men!"
- Because the card picture of Silver Hand Regent has very... perky breasts, as well as her very sultry voice work and the ability to summon a Silver Hand Recruit whenever the player uses their hero power, a number of jokes have been made about how she used her "assets" to recruit gullible young men to their death.
- And now, the Paladin Legendary Ragnaros, Lightlord for Whispers of the Old Gods joins the ranks. Barely revealed and people are already 'twisting' iconic Ragnaros quotes from his Bad Boss persona to a Benevolent Boss one.
- UPROOT OR NO BALLS ExplanationAncient of War is a 7-cost 5/5 with Choose One: +5 Attack, or +5 Health and Taunt. Everyone chooses the latter because a 5/10 with taunt is playable and a 10/5 is just unplayable. The option for +5 Attack is called Uproot, so whenever a streamer plays Ancient of War, the chat will explode with dares to Uproot even though it's almost always the incorrect play.
- "Who am I? None of your business!" ExplanationMysterious Challenger is a 6-mana 6/6 Paladin minion whose Battlecry puts one of every Secret in your deck into play. He was notorious for being the centerpiece of the infamous Secret Paladin deck which dominated The Grand Tournament's meta, and while the deck has long since died out, cards that put Secrets into play are still compared to Mysterious Challenger.
- 4 mana 7/7 ExplanationFlamewreathed Faceless is a 4 mana 7/7 Shaman minion with the drawback of Overload 2. It became infamous due to its use in the popular (and much hated) Face Shaman deck throughout 2016. Many players will still jokingly react to any 4 mana 7/7 minion, particularly those created with handbuff effects, as if it's automatically the most powerful card in the game, and a popular joking response to buffing a card (or custom cards) is to tweak the stats until it becomes Flamewreathed Faceless (usually starting by making it a 4-mana 7/7, then giving it to Shaman to balance out the stats, then giving it Overload: (2) as a drawback, and then deciding that it would be better without a face). Blizzard themselves joined in with the Dr. Boom fight in Galakrond's Awakening, where he unleashes his ultimate invention — F.U.S.E., which is of course a 4 mana 7/7. This was also acknowledged in the April Fools 2022 joke patch, which included a "change" where the equally memetic Boulderfist Ogre was given to Shaman, changed to a 4-mana 7/7, given the text "Ogreload: (2)", and then renamed to "Flamewreathed Faceless" because the old name no longer fit.
- PRAISE YOGG! ExplanationYogg-Saron, Hope's End has what is possibly one of the wackiest RNG-based effects ever, casting a random spell with random targets for each spell you previously cast that game. He quickly achieved notoriety for the effect, especially when it turned out to be actually pretty good rather than a Cool, but Inefficient gimmick, to the point where players often worship Yogg-Saron as the Random Number God.
- Your Charge minions have +1 Attack. ExplanationThe notoriously overpowered Warsong Commander's effect was nerfed from giving Charge to minions with 3 or less attack to giving Charge minions +1 Attack, completely erasing its original function and making the card completely unplayable. This is one of the most widely derided balance changes among the fanbase. Any discussion about a card deemed overpowered will have someone mockingly suggest that the card in question be nerfed to give +1 Attack to Charge minions.
This was given a Meme Acknowledgement twice. First in Heroes of the Storm, where Johanna's Warsong skin mentions that she used to be a commander before some things went down and now she needed to find new work. The second was part of the 2022 April Fools' Day fake patch notes where the much-maligned Blightborne Tamsin had her effect changed to, you guessed it, "Your Charge minions have +1 Attack." - Reno is a dragon. ExplanationA fan theory started by the Karazhan trailer, which features Reno, Finley, and a cow chilling in a hot tub before The Curator jumps in. The Curator's effect is to draw a Murloc, a Beast... and a Dragon. It actually made some sense; given Reno's love of treasure and unexplained healing powers, he could actually be a red dragon in human form, maybe Obfuscating Stupidity.
- Good stats for the cost.ExplanationBoulderfist Ogre is a mostly unremarkable vanilla 6 mana 6/7 with the memetic Flavor Text "ME HAVE GOOD STATS FOR THE COST". This led to players claiming that Boulderfist Ogre is the strongest card in Hearthstone, or using that phrase to describe any minion that passes the vanilla test (attack = mana cost, health = mana cost +1) or even just any 6/7.
This became an Ascended Meme several times: Zephrys the Great's diamond animation has him choosing Boulderfist Ogre as the "perfect card". A patch in Showdown at the Badlands secretly updated Kingpin Pudd to resummon your Boulderfist Ogres that died this game alongside his normal synergy cards. For the 2024 April Fools' Day, Boulderfist Ogre was added to Battlegrounds, with its Golden version not getting doubled stats because 6/7 is already perfect. Finally, Warrior got a hero skin that same April called Boulderfist the Ogre. - "I'M IN CHARGE NOW!" ExplanationDuring the Gadgetzan era, Pirate Warrior rose to infamy as one of the most notoriously powerful aggro decks in the game, and Patches the Pirate's "I'm in charge now!" voiceline quickly became synonymous with death by Pirates. When Patches was eventually nerfed by losing Charge, the voiceline was changed with it, to much chagrin from players.
- Drew Patches ExplanationSince Patches summons himself from the deck after playing a Pirate, players can tell when their opponent drew Patches since they'd play a Pirate and nothing would happen. His ubiquitous play eventually spread the phrase "Drawing/Drew Patches" to mean drawing any card you want to stay in your deck (Ultimate Infestation in a Spiteful deck, combo pieces for Zerek's Cloning Gallery, ect).
- "I'll summon a larger and larger man, which will allow me later on to summon an even larger man!" ExplanationQuoted from Day9 ranting about Jade Druid's ubiquity and ease of use in the Gadgetzan meta.
- Ascended in the game's achievement system, which has an achievement named "An Even Larger Man" for ending your turn with a 20/20 or bigger minion in play.
- "How looong can this go on?" note Saronite Chain Gang's play line is often played twice due to its battlecry. It's also surprisingly appropriate for conveying some of the players' frustrations (like being stuck in a bad meta), leading to the line being spammable under many contexts.
- "MY JAWS THAT BITE, MY CLAWS THAT CATCH!"ExplanationShudderwock became infamous barely a day after The Witchwood launched, due to its ability (duplicate every Battlecry you've played this game) letting a player set up combos that go on for an incredibly long time and chip the opponent to death over five minutes worth of animations. This often involves duplicating itself about a dozen times over by copying Saronite Chain Gang, repeating its entry line "My jaws that bite, my claws that catch!" every single time.
- It's a cheaper Sprint that tutors. ExplanationJuicy Psychomelon always draws a 7, 8, 9, and 10-cost card, and only costs 4 mana to boot. It's way more efficient and consistent than the 7-mana Sprint while being designed for the infamously powerful Druid class, and this copypasta arose soon after the card was teased. To note, while Psychomelon was not very impactful in Standard, it certainly caused Combo Druid to reign Wild, making the copypasta's fears real.
- "Zephrys knows." ExplanationRefers to Zephrys' Artificial Brilliance, able to analyze battlefield conditions, deduce the best possible solutions and offer them to you. Much of the meme comes from how players say how <x card> would solve their issue, play Zephrys and get offered exactly that, or alternatively offer a card even better than what the player had in mind. This is especially true when Zephrys offers something slow or seemingly mediocre and it ends up being perfect on a later turn.
- Never go full NorthshireExplanationNorthshire Cleric is a 1-mana 1/3 Priest minion that draws a card whenever a minion is healed. While considered one of the best Priest cards in the game, to the point that no Priest would be caught dead without a Northshire in their deck, having two Northshire Clerics on board is considered nothing short of suicidal due to any minion healing running the risk of a catastrophic overdraw. This goes double when going against another Priest, as the combination of Wild Pyromancer and a Circle of Healing will cause the Priest that went full Northshire to mill half their deck, and a second Circle will almost certainly kill them several times over.
The line itself has been recognized by the game in a few ways — a few bosses quote the meme verbatim when overdrawing from Northshire, and a couple of lethal puzzles involving this card are actually titled some variant of "Full Northshire". - A certain Kobolds and Catacombs card's huge power level in defiance of all expectations resulted in the fanbase creating this:
In the dungeon I go deeper
In set reviews
I was a sleeperWhen minions die
I get cheaperYou guessed it right, I'm Corridor Creeper
note After Corridor Creeper got nerfed, this line promptly became "You guessed it right, I'm 3 Attack weaker". - "Armed with SALT!"ExplanationThe Auto-chess tavern brawl and the Karazhan boss had the pawns say "En Passant" when played. You could easily mishear them as saying "armed with SALT!"
- "It's simple. I play Barnes, summon Blood of the Ancient One. Bring him back, play him again, summon Blood of the Ancient One. And then, at the end of my turn, I summon... THE 🅱️ANCIENT ONE!"Explanation From the video A Glorious Guide to Hearthstone by Darkk Mane, where he spends over half of it trying to win using a meme deck that uses Barnes to cheat out two copies of Blood of the Ancient One, which merge to form The Ancient One (a 30/30) at the end of the turn. Most attempts naturally end with The Ancient One immediately dying unceremoniously, and he adds a different letter to the front of The Ancient One's name each time. The video led to The Ancient One becoming a meme in the community and an uptick in Wild players building meme decks around it, with "The 🅱️ancient One" (or "The Bancient One") becoming a popular Fan Nickname for the token.
