The spookiest Hearthstone cards to play this October

I adore the fall. Temperatures cool, football comes back, and the holiday season begins. Hallow’s End (or Halloween) gets the ball rolling and it’s a time to celebrate all things creepy and spooky. Hearthstone has tons of creepy cards. The entire Witchwood expansion thrilled on the eerie and ominous. Here are some of the spookiest cards you can play in Hearthstone.

Coffin Crasher

We start the list with a zombie wearing a coffin, probably his own coffin which makes it all the creepier. Coffin Crasher is seem in some niche priest decks to cheat out a Deranged Doctor or an Obsidian Statue. This kind of deck would use the Awaken the Makers Quest card for a huge heal and the mass resurrect of Lesser Diamond Spellstone.

Face Collector

This guy has a belt made of faces. Where do you think he got them? You know, I don’t think I want to know. But after he got them, he decided making a belt of out them would be a great idea. Face Collector most often appears in battlecry heavy decks featuring Tess Greymane. I’m going to have to reevaluate my relationship with Tess after realizing this.

Grave Shambler

Graveyards are spooky places all on their own. This graveyard came to life, formed itself into a creature and started shambling around. The golden animation shows him drawing debris into his mouth, which would send me running to my nearest Paladin or Holy/Disc Priest. Like the other cards so far, Grave Shambler doesn’t appear in any ‘meta’ decks, but finds a home in some Tempo based Rogue decks.

Spiders

I know for some people, spiders are terrifying. Hearthstone is replete with spiders and spider people in the form of Nerubians. Just a few examples are Hardonox, Spellweaver, Deathweb Spider, and Vilebrood Skitter. I’ve always liked Hardonox and felt he had potential. He does work in a taunt heavy, Carnivorous Cube deck, but Druids have many better deck options right now. Spellweaver doesn’t see much play. Aggro Mage uses spell damage minions, but the 6 mana cost of Spellweaver makes it a poor choice for an aggro deck. Deathweb Spider (because we need to accentuate the whole web equals death thing) also doesn’t see much play but can be combined in decks with Prince Keleseth to provide a powerful heal. Vilebrood is a fantastic tempo card for beast based Hunter decks.

Abominations

Let’s take a bunch of random body parts from creatures we’ve killed and stitch them together! Add in a little dark magic and behold, we have our own horrific Frankenstein creations.  Hearthstone has your run of the mill Abomination, but when that’s not creepy enough, you can add in a werewolf (Worgen Abomination) or a ticking timebomb (Ticking Abomination). Abomination provides a board clear in a deathrattle heavy deck. Worgen Abomination doesn’t see much play in Constructed, but its Baron Geddon type effect makes it a popular choice in Arena. Ticking Abomination has some niche uses like silence based decks or combined with cards like Treachery.

Possessed trees

Traveling through a spooky forest is a well-known trope around this time of year. It feels like at any moment the trees themselves will come to life and attack you. In Hearthstone, they do. Whether its Splintergraft, Festeroot Hulk, Splintering Festeroot, or Rotten Applebaum, you’ll be wishing you brought a chainsaw. Splintergraft is a slow combo card, and Druids have so many better options. Festeroot Hulk is a card sometimes seen in Odd Warrior. Splintering Festeroot sees some play, since its Deathrattle is helpful in a meta where board presence is more important than ever. Rotten Applebaum can slot into almost any non-aggro deck. It’s a staple for both Odd Warrior and the few remaining Quest Warriors who haven’t switched over to Dr. Boom, Mad Genius.

Man-eating plants

If terrorizing trees isn’t enough for you, don’t worry, we a full selection of man eating plants straight outta of a Little Shop of Horrors. Humongous Razorleaf, Vilespine Slayer, and Biteweed will all make you search for some industrial strength weed killer. Humongous sees play in silence based, Divine Spirit/Inner Fire decks. Vilespine can slot into almost Rogue deck. It provides solid single target removal and with all the tricks Rogues have to bounce the card back to their hand, players can get multiple uses out of it. Biteweed is something of a mini VanCleef, so if you don’t have Edwin, you can substitute Biteweed to get a similar effect.

Ghosts

No Halloween lists would be complete without ghosts and Hearthstone doesn’t disappoint. We’ve got pirate ghosts (Cursed Castaway), noble ghosts (Lady in White), and even ghost horses (Ghostly Charger) and ghost dogs (Arfus). Does anyone have Dr. Peter Venkman on speed dial? Lady in White spawned a deck built around her Inner Fire effect. Ghostly Charger fits into a Divine Shield heavy deck. Arfus provides a Lich King card. These vary from amazing to quite good depending on what you get and the deck you are playing. Cursed Castaway provides a tutor effect for combo cards, but doesn’t see much play.

Witch’s Cauldron

Double, double toil and trouble
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble

Since its introduction in Shakespeare’s MacBeth, the Witch’s Cauldron has been a staple of the season. Despite giving a Shaman class card, Witch’s Cauldron finds its way into other classes with good minion and spell synergy like Paladin, Mage, and Warlock.

Lifedrinker

Look at that…. thing. It reminds me of a giant mosquito, and where I come from that’s as scary as it gets. My list, my irrational fears. Lifedrinker is the most powerful card on the list and became a staple in various versions of Shudderwock Shaman. Freddy’s got nothing on the sheer terror slower decks felt when Lifedrinker hit the board.  They knew they hace to switch gears to get the Shaman down before the Shudderwock combo did them in.

That’s my list of some of the creepiest cards in Hearthstone. What about you? What cards should have made the cut?