The Deadmines, United in Stormwind's Mini-set released back in early November 2021, was definitely a pretty successful event in the Year of the Gryphon roadmap: not only it brought new cards to the game, but was also able to shake up what is going to pass down on history as one of the most controversial metas in the entire Hearthstone history.
Now, the bundle is going to expire January 24th and, for those who are yet to buy it, we decided to give you a quick overview about whether it's still a good deal or not.
Preliminary Information
Just like Darkmoon Races and Wailing Caverns, the Deadmines bundle costs 2000 gold or 14.99 USD and it contains 4 Legendaries, 1 Epic, 14 Rares, and 16 Commons.
If we were to crunch some numbers, the total dust value you'd obtain from purchasing this bundle would be:
(4x400) + (2x100) + (28x20) + (32x5) = 2520 Arcane Dust
Assuming that each card packs contains around 100 dust on average (source), you could realistically expect to get 2000 dust from a 2000 gold investment. Given these numbers, it appears that the bundle's cost is more than beneficial towards your resource investment.
TL;DR: if all you care about is dust value, then this is a great deal for you - go click that 'buy' button.
Card Evaluation
Now, the next step is evaluating the cards contained in this bundle and to see what is their impact on the current meta or their potential to see some degree of play in the next 15 months of Standard. Long story short, as you're going to see in a second, most of the cards are quite good, and almost all of them have seen some experimentation or are currently seeing play in top-tier decks, some of which are listed below.
Very Good Cards
These are the cards that stand out the most. Being funny or powerful, only one thing is certain: if you don't already own them, then you definitely want to take advantage of this promotion. The Deadmines Mini-Set showcases a handful of very powerful cards, good enough to push entire archetypes into the meta or to round up some decks' already acceptable performances.
For example, Brilliant Macaw allows Shaman to have incredibly useful flexibility, that can be used to stall the board (Snowfall Guardian, Sleetbreaker), disrupt your opponent (Mutanus the Devourer) and fill your board (Bearon Gla'shear) or hand (Multicaster). You basically have two Floops for Battlecries!
You're playing a class that doesn't have card draw but you desperately need it? Multicaster is one of the benefits of the introduction of Spell Schools to the game. If you run just two of them, this unit becomes a Neutral Arcane Intellect on a stick, but if you manage to play three Schools together (Mage and Shaman come to mind), then the card becomes even better.
Edwin, Defias Kingpin represents another win-condition for Rogue, which has started to see play since Alterac Day 1. While drawing through your deck and setting up a huge body isn't something you'd normally pass on, it's the Pirate tribal tag in combination with Mr. Smite (another Deadmines card) that really pushes the new Edwin over the top. In other words, two of the four Deadmines Legendaries are very strong and, therefore, worth owning.
We only showcased four cards, but trust us: the list of strong tools could go on.
Good Cards
Not every card needs to be broken, some just need to exist in order to smoothen the deck's gameplan and give more options and flexibility.
Together with Guardian Augmerchant and Adorable Infestation, Doggie Biscuit represents a strong early game play following a 1-drop, especially if we're talking about Irondeep Trogg and Arcane Anomaly. Moonlit Guidance is Druid's version of Shadow Visions, and allows for some funny shenanigans like choosing and playing two 0-mana Umbral Owl or more copies of Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate. Deepwater Evoker gave Mage some of that essential survivability that the class rarely has. Sunwing Squawker is a key unit in Buff Paladin, and allows you to obtain tons of stats (Blessing of Authority) or sticky enhancements (Noble Mount).
Situational Cards
Even though there are cards that aren't currently seeing play, most of them have the potential to make a comeback in the future: in fact, this mini-set brought support for many archetypes that probably don't need many more tools in order to see competitive play, and their time may come with the upcoming rotation.
Cookie the Cook and Goliath, Sneed's Masterpiece are great example of what we're trying to say: the first one is a cheap sustainability tool, while the latter is a flexibly removal. Both of them look good on paper, but right now there doesn't seem to be many decks that require their help.
Same goes for Monstrous Macaw and Deathrattles: give Hunter a couple good units and you'll start seeing the birb with more frequency. Aggro Priest isn't a thing outside of the Shadow archetype, but Defias Leper is a really good incentive at going aggressive with the class.
Final Verdict
If you happen to have 2000 Gold laying around and you're not sure about how to invest it, our genuine advice is to take advantage of this deal and buy the Deadmines Mini-set: there are far too many impactful/potential cards, especially among the Legendary ones, so you really don't want to miss out on this chance.
As we already pointed out in the past, opening packs are way more thrilling than just hitting a button and scrolling through your collection, but this is a solid way for players, especially those who can't or don't want to invest real money in the game, to expand their collection and have more (good) tools at their disposal.
As always, our suggestion greatly depends on the financial/in-game resources you currently have, so take our words with a pinch of salt.
Note: most of the deck lists featured in this article were taken from the Vicious Syndicate Meta Report #218.
What is the best memory that the Deadmines cards have brought you so far? Let us know in the comments below?
Comments
I just want to point out that the link at the bottom leads to Data Reaper Report 195.
Crap - fixed.
As long as we're not discussing whether the midset needs to exist in the first place, 15 bucks or 2000 gold for 4 legendaries is quite a steal. Unless you're crafting all the rares and commons, you'd still need around 8-10 packs to get them all anyway.
I'd really like to know at what point it stops becoming reasonable/good value. For eg: lets say you opened 10 UiS packs and got 50% of the Deadmines cards and 2 legendries. Is it still worth buying then?
The most important question would be whether you want the legendaries, because the rares and commons are easily gotten, if not crafted, while the one sole epic is by tradition, quite shit.
In deadmines, Edwin, Defias Kingpin and Mr. Smite are obviously good now, while cookie can possibly slot in one day should the meta turn away from combo. If by chance you get edwin or mr smite, I'd say you dont really need to splash the cash anymore.
The mini-sets are some of the best value, you get so many cards just for 2k gold. I think Mr. Smite is worth 2,000 gold by himself.
Being only Mr. Smite 2000 gold is a bit of a stretch, but I can't deny that this card alone makes the entire mini-set deal much, much more appealing.
For someone who would consider crafting Mr. Smite, he's worth 1600 dust, which is roughly the same value as 1600 gold.
I personally value gold less than dust, since gold can only randomly give me cards while dust directly gives me cards. I value gold at 100 gold equals 80 dust, hence where I value Smite as a worth 2k gold. Over time, packs may give 100 dust, but most of the time I just get 40 dust, but I do get decent packs once in a while so I compromised with 80.
I think the minisets are a good deal for 2000 gold, but I've been waiting and just crafting a few rares/epics/legendary. Usually the end of season ranked rewards fill out enough commons/rares, and it takes a couple weeks for the "good" cards to become apparent. Then you can save the extra gold and only create what you need.
On a side note, either Mr. Smite or Edwin, Defias Kingpin have a (very low, but still to be considered) chance to be touched in the upcoming balance patch.
I'm hoping Defias Cannoneer, which is also from the mini set, gets hit with the nerf bat.
I don't think Mr. Smite is likely to get nerfed this week, but he might still get nerfed later. And if he doesn't, he'll likely be playable in multiple future decks.