Classic Hearthstone is a callback to a simpler time before every deck on ladder was capable of making you punch your monitor in a single turn. Decks back then often felt frustrating to play against, but now they seem downright tame in retrospect. It can be extremely refreshing to play in a toned-down environment.

Related: Hearthstone: The Most-Played Cards In Classic

If you’re feeling nostalgic for the good old days or want to experience the earliest era of Hearthstone for yourself, Classic is your opportunity to do exactly that. If you’re going to queue up some classic games, though, you’ll need a deck. Here are some that are worth your dust.

10 Control Priest

Back in the day, almost every Priest deck was built around a single card: Northshire Cleric, perhaps the greatest draw engine in Hearthstone history. The card can be good on its own, but it really shines when combined with Wild Pyromancer and Circle of Healing. Used in concert, these cards can draw your entire deck.

And in the case of Control Priest, all of those cards are removal tools. This deck won’t be every player’s cup of tea, but if you are a Priest enthusiast or you enjoy the feeling of killing every minion your opponent plays, this old-school control deck might be right up your alley.

9 Midrange Shaman

Midrange Shaman is about taking advantage of Shaman’s ability to spawn Totems. It uses Flametongue Totem to get advantageous trades, then follows up with midgame heavy hitters like Fire Elementals and Al’Akir the Windlord at the top end. If your Totems and other minions have stuck around by turn five, you can kill the opponent with Bloodlust.

And even if they manage to clear your board, you have damage from hand with Doomhammer. There are other, more effective midrange strategies in Classic Hearthstone, but the Shaman variant has enough juice to compete on ladder.

8 Handlock Warlock

For those who remember the early days of Hearthstone, Handlock is a deck that probably sticks in your mind. It has an extremely memorable strategy: use your Hero Power in the first few turns, building your hand and damaging your health, which allows you to play early Mountain and Molten Giants.

Related: Hearthstone: The Best Decks For Standard

Since the introduction of Classic, Handlock hasn’t been the dominant force it once was. Maybe it's because people are better at playing around the deck's power plays. But if you want to see the screen shake as your Giants hit the board, you aren’t going to find that anywhere else.

7 Aggro Paladin

Almost every aggro deck in Classic runs a similar group of minions, including your Leper Gnomes and your Knife Jugglers. Paladin has a few advantages over these other decks, including various minion buffs and a powerful weapon in Truesilver Champion.

Most important among them, though, is Divine Favor, which allows you to draw until you have the same number of cards in hand as your opponent does. Even against other aggro decks, Divine Favor can still get some value if you play your cards right (pun intended). But when facing a control deck with no choice but to keep a lot of cards in their hand, Divine Favor punishes them for playing the value game. In the best-case scenario, it can draw you a full hand of cards and win games by itself.

6 Freeze Mage

Freeze Mage is one of Hearthstone's most frustrating decks to play against. You defend your life total and lock your opponent out of the game with cards like Frost Nova, Blizzard, and Ice Block—one of the best cards Hearthstone has ever seen—until you assemble enough damage in hand to kill them.

Despite the deck’s power against board-based strategies, Freeze Mage can still struggle against decks that deal damage from hand. Its biggest problem, though, is the existence of Control Warrior, a matchup that was historically so awful that winning on the Freeze Mage side was seen as a miracle. But if you don’t mind running into the occasional unwinnable matchup, Freeze Mage is an incredibly fun and rewarding deck to play.

5 Control Warrior

Warrior has always been the ultimate control class, and Classic Control Warrior is where it all started. The deck has enough removal tools to stave off the powerful aggro decks that exist in Classic Hearthstone, and, unlike the Control Priest from earlier on this list, it does have some win conditions (though it’s still not the most exciting deck in the world).

Control Warrior runs a full suite of heavy hitters and can end the game by slamming down powerful minions like Grommash Hellscream, Ragnaros the Firelord, and Alexstraza. If you want the best control deck in Classic Hearthstone, this is it.

4 Face Hunter

Face Hunter is an archetype that hasn’t really changed over the years, and the version in Classic Hearthstone is the deck in its purest form. Almost every card is focused on dealing damage to the opponent’s face. Most of it can be dealt directly from your hand, including cards like Wolfrider that appeared underwhelming even at the time.

Related: Hearthstone: The Best Hunter Cards

And all that damage is supplemented by a Hero Power just as single-mindedly focused on face damage, steadily chipping away at your opponent’s life total as they watch helplessly.

3 Zoo Warlock

You would be hard-pressed to find a Hearthstone player who doesn’t know what Zoo Warlock is. Created by Hearthstone legend Reynad, it operates on a streamlined strategy. You play minions on curve to dominate the board. Then you refill your hand with Life Tap, the Hero Power that makes the entire strategy possible. Life Tap is so much stronger than every other Hero Power in Hearthstone that the Hearthstone team once considered changing it entirely.

And even if your opponent does manage to clear your board, you can finish them off with burst damage from hand in the form of Doomguard and zero-mana Soulfire. It’s a simple but undeniably effective concept and requires more skill to pilot correctly than many people give it credit.

2 Combo Druid

If you queue up some games on the Standard format ladder right now, many of the Druid decks you encounter will gain infinite mana, then use those extra mana crystals to kill you with some disgusting combo. The Classic version of Druid uses a similar strategy but on a more basic level.

They play Wild Growth and Innervate (which gave two mana back in the day), then play over-statted minions to beat down the opponent until they get into range of the Force of Nature/Savage Roar combo. It was one of the best decks back then and remains so now.

1 Miracle Rogue

If you’re looking for the Classic deck with the highest skill cap of its era, you’re in the right place. When played properly, Miracle Rogue allows you to kill your opponent from out of nowhere with wild combo turns. In the current Hearthstone landscape, it feels like every deck can do a similar thing, but Miracle Rogue was the original.

However, it’s just as easy to get yourself killed if you aren’t careful. You’re playing on a knife’s edge, and whether you successfully navigate the blade or fall to a bloody death depends on your own skill.

Next: Things We Wish We Knew Before Playing Hearthstone