In an act of unprecedented generosity (or unprecedented hype-building, if you’re more cynical), Hearthstone is bringing one of its most iconic card expansions back and giving every player free access. The Knights of the Frozen Throne set will be legal in the Standard format from today, and will remain so up until the release of the March of the Lich King set on December 6, at which point it will be banished back to Wild.
Thematically, bringing Knights of the Frozen Throne back is a cool teaser, because it was the first Hearthstone set to dip into Death Knight lore in the form of an undead ‘hero card’ for each class. It also added The Lich King as a legendary minion, which was Arthas Menethil’s first appearance in the card game. As was also announced today, the forthcoming March of the Lich King expansion will finally add Death Knight as a playable class, with Arthas providing the starting hero. So yeah, as a tie-in, it makes total sense—especially given how beloved Knights of the Frozen Throne was.
Originally released in August 2017, Knights of the Frozen Throne contains 135 cards, several of which subsequently had to be nerfed. Those changes have mostly been reverted, as has been the trend once cards have spent some time in Wild. Previously, the biggest number of Wild Cards that Blizzard has reintroduced into Standard as part of a promotion was October 2019’s Doom in the Tomb event, which saw 23 cards come back (and also resulted in a diabolically unbalanced meta, but let’s not dwell on that right now).
Making such a large injection of old content into the traditional expansion cycle is bound to shake things up substantially. Knights of the Frozen Throne was an incredibly powerful set in its time, and although power creep means the likes of Frost Lich Jaina are unlikely to be as strong as they once were, I think we’re bound to see surprises in terms of potential synergies with our modern collections. Here are 20 of the most noteworthy Knights of the Frozen cards, with thoughts on where they might fit in now.
