Five must craft neutral Hearthstone cards

There are a lot of cards in Hearthstone. It can be difficult to know which ones to craft with your hard earned dust, especially in the beginning. Do you save up for a legendary or try and craft more accessible cards in order to build up decent library? I mentioned it before, but I think the best option is grabbing up the basics, specifically cards that hold value across multiple decks.

There's no ranking behind these cards, so grab them up in whatever order you see fit. All of them have strengths and weaknesses, which we'll discuss below.

Argent Squire: 40 dust

As turn one options go, Argent Squire is easily the most nauseating neutral minion available. She features Divine Shield, meaning it will usually require two damage sources (or one and a silence) to take her off the board. There are exceptions, such as Earth Shock, Stampeding Kodo, and a couple of board clearing/kill spells, but beyond those there isn't much to conveniently deal with her. She's a 1/1 though, right? How much can she really accomplish? The answer is a lot. Flametongue Totem, Dire Wolf Alpha, Shattered Sun Cleric and other minions can quickly give her a boost, taking her from pint-sized problem to actual irritation. Buff spells such as Blessing of Kings and Rockbiter Weapon can also make her problematic, as she'll often get a lot of mileage due to Divine Shield.

She's a fantastic choice for early game aggression, tokens, and even a couple of midrange decks, and is absolutely worth crafting for 40 dust.

Ironbeak Owl: 40 dust

Silences are crucial in Hearthstone. They're essentially bomb disarming kits, made to deal with troublesome minions such as Sylvanas Windrunner, Edwin VanCleef, Lightspawn, et cetera. Silences are also a cheap answer to sneaking past beefy taunt minions like Ancient of War. Unfortunately, only three classes have access to silence spells inherently, those being Druid, Shaman and Priest. Everyone else has to draw from the neutral minion pool. Ironbeak Owl and Spellbreaker are the only available silence options, and while Spellbreaker's definitely solid, Ironbeak Owl is cheaper and thus my recommendation. They have similar stat spreads, but Ironbeak Owl is more mana flexible, often making it the preferable option.

Ironbeak Owl can honestly be run in just about any deck, no matter what your agenda. At 40 dust, expect to see a lot of value out of this bird.

Wild Pyromancer: 100 dust

Area of effect mechanics are incredibly important in Hearthstone. Unfortunately, most classes have very rigid limitations on just how much AoE their class can produce. In example, paladins have Consecration, but that's about it. If they want to do more AoE damage, they're forced to outsource. Wild Pyromancer is available to all classes and is a great card for dealing with problematic board situations as it does one damage to all minions per spell played. Ideally, you want to use this when your opponent has a loaded board and you don't stand to lose much. Matchups against Zoo Warlock are where this card really shines. Wild Pyromancer and cheap spells can quickly bring a savage board to heel.

Additionally, Wild Pyromancer has unique synergy with a couple of classes. If paired with the paladin spell Equality, it's almost always a board wipe, the exceptions being cards with Divine Shield and deathrattles that spawn additional minions, such as Cairne Bloodhoof and Harvest Golem. Priest also makes stellar use of the card, through spells such a Power Word: Shield and Circle of Healing in conjunction with Northshire Cleric. If you plan on mainly playing paladin or priest, this card is essential for specific matchups.

Wild Pyromancer will run you 100 dust per copy, but don't let the price scare you off. It's a totally worthwhile investment.

Harvest Golem: 40 dust

Admittedly, a 2/3 for three mana is not super impressive in Hearthstone, especially considering that Bloodfen Raptor is a 3/2 for two mana and is available to everyone. Harvest Golem has a clever mechanic, however. When it expires, it leaves behind a pint-sized 2/1 clone. At 2/1, Damaged Golem is certainly not difficult to remove from the board, but it usually requires additional mana, health or even a card to deal with. This generates an advantage for you, and advantage is quite often the single most important factor in Hearthstone. If you run out of cards, you run out of plays, and once you're relying solely on whatever you top deck to win the game, you're put into a strategically weak position. Harvest Golem helps you by tying up your opponent's resources and early turns.

This card can be silenced, but if it is, you're essentially depriving your foe of an important tool later on in the match. If you can force your opponent to use a Keeper of the Grove on a Harvest Golem, and not your Sylvanas Windrunner a few turns later, that's a great victory. What this card lacks in glitz and glam, it makes up for in reliable value. It can be run in a lot of different setups, and is a great default three drop to use when you're trying to build your own decks. Definitely stop by Westfall and grab this mechanical menace when you have 40 dust.

Defender of Argus: 100 dust

Taunts save lives. That's a basic truth in Hearthstone. Whether you're playing against Zoo Warlock, Miracle Rogue, Tokens Druid, whatever, the ability to bestow taunt upon creatures is incredibly valuable. Defender of Argus does just that. He slips between two minions and hands them shields. He's actually not much of a defender, so much as an enabler. Regardless, he's a must have card in your arsenal. Along with taunt, he also bestows a +1/+1 upon the affected creatures. This sort of value seems like it should be reserved for an epic, maybe even a legendary, but no. Defender of Argus is a lowly rare, and can be made for 100 dust.

The taunt generation and bonus stat points are already amazing, but what truly legitimizes Defender of Argus as a must craft card is its versatility. It can be run in aggressive decks, it can be run in midrange decks, it can be run in control decks. If you have minions, you can run Defender of Argus. Paladins and shamans get even more value out of this card because they can generate their own creatures via their hero powers and buff them up. This is especially brutal when your opponent is not counting on your Stoneclaw Totem being able to do one damage.

What about ______?

Never fear, there will be additional features highlighting must craft neutral cards. We're choosing to highlight sub epic level cards because they're the most affordable to craft, and of greatest use to newer players. If you have a card you want to see featured, leave us a comment below!