Hearthpwn

Just curious... What's the purpose of the Elven Archer in this deck?

After years of arguing with stubborn people on these forums saying that Blizz would never release an armor breaking card and that the concept was far too strong to include, Platebreaker is released. I always imagined it would have terrible stats to make up for the effect but I love that it doesn't at all. Looking forward to seeing this used in wild to counter some of the crazy druid combos. I seriously doubt it will have any impact on the meta but it's good to know that I can use this in some janky combo decks that have a lower OTK that can't breach 60+ damage in one turn.

As reference... here are a few of the threads that I had discussions in:

https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-discussion/226384-the-untouchable-hearthpwn-topic-armor-removal-tech

https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-discussion/217752-now-can-we-talk-about-armor-removal-tech

Is this supposed to be a GoT reference? The ship ballista that Euron used?

First go at Yogg mage in standard. My first puzzlebox Pyroblasts me in the face for the loss with 8 minions on the board in what would have been a win. I guess that's what I get for playing Yogg.

IMO Barnes should have just been something like "Summon a 1/1 copy of a minion in your deck. Give it Deathrattle: return this card to your deck". Then it's a minor buff for some decks but completely destroys its use in Big Priest, literally the only deck where it's an issue.

Quote from Tyn >>

 

Really the problem isn't with Zephrys so much as it is with Avenging Wrath. It's basically the only card that double as both a board clear and as burst damage, so Blizzard is going to have to really rework the programming if they want to find the situation where it can be used as both.

 This isn't necessarily true. Arcane Missiles and Greater Arcane Missiles do the same thing, as does Spreading Madness. There's a number of effects like this throughout the game. Maybe not many between basic and classic but since Arcane Missiles exists as well, this necessitates an adjustment to the coding in my opinion.

Why is fucking Big Priest not nerfed yet? Honestly. It ruins everyone's fun every single expansion. Barely anything changes in the decklist either. Just nerf it. I don't care that the win rate might not be overly strong, it's inherently frustrating to play against just like quest rogue was and that got nerfed too for the exact same reason.

I haven't seen Geist run in probably the last 100 wild games. Yes. Geist counters this but the chances of running into it are fairly slim IMO.

1-cost pogo is a huge deal. Now bouncing them with Daring Escape or Vanish isn't a huge tempo loss. I still don't think the deck is that good as it's hard to put a lot of copy/bounce cards and then still have some defensive options but it is definitely great against control.

I agree that the prep nerf really sucks. I wish they had just done it years ago and then started balancing spells around the nerf instead of us now having cards like wanted. That being said, pogo buff might be interesting to work with.

Quote from dylanthelion >>

 

Double health is solid, but not good enough to swing Heroic runs. Even if you don't have Vile Potion, it often triggers the AI into making bad plays it normally wouldn't, , and being able to ignore 10+ damage for a couple of turns can straight-up win lots of late-run Normal battles.''

 This is not true. I got the passive that halves the cost of all your cards and filled my entire deck with high cost legendaries. Despite being a huge powerhouse of a deck, if you get overwhelmed by some bosses insane RNG-filled 4 mana starts, they can kill you before you get the big boys down. With double health, it gives you a nice buffer to get your deck rolling when you get crazy combos like that. Before that run I had no belief in double health but now I can see some of the value.

<Sorry, forgot to Quote this properly>

I think we agree. When I said that it is a solid power, I meant that it is always useful, and far more so than the "Start the game with 3..." powers. But it's not good enough to win a Heroic run ON ITS OWN.

As for your run, I don't think you would have won with double health alone, not even close, in my experience. Surviving is pointless if you can't use it to both sweep the board and establish a tremendous board presence. You had Robes of Gaudiness, which are frequently recognized as the most OP power. They're the big reason your deck was good, but as you said, they're not enough on their own: you sometimes need another solid factor, either good AoE, balance, or in your case, the ability to survive until your Robes snowball into insurmountable board presence.

 

 Fair enough. I didn't realize you meant "without any other meaningful passives". In that case, I do agree as there's no way for it to carry a run for you.

Quote from dylanthelion >>

Double health is solid, but not good enough to swing Heroic runs. Even if you don't have Vile Potion, it often triggers the AI into making bad plays it normally wouldn't, , and being able to ignore 10+ damage for a couple of turns can straight-up win lots of late-run Normal battles.''

 This is not true. I got the passive that halves the cost of all your cards and filled my entire deck with high cost legendaries. Despite being a huge powerhouse of a deck, if you get overwhelmed by some bosses insane RNG-filled 4 mana starts, they can kill you before you get the big boys down. With double health, it gives you a nice buffer to get your deck rolling when you get crazy combos like that. Before that run I had no belief in double health but now I can see some of the value.

Yeah I goofed around with spell power mage awhile back and I REALLY liked Azerite Elemental. I tried to make Arcane Watcher and Spellbook Binder work but I just found it too difficult to keep spell power minions on the board. I like your list (particularly the cyclone focus) more than mine.

But my achievements... =(

To those upset about the site closing, shift over to Out of Cards. It's the same thing run by the same people. It just sucks that our decks can't transfer directly over to it as I've been deckbuilding on this site for years but that always gives us the option to get a fresh start.

It's been mentioned already but Zilliax is a much better option here as the divine shield, taunt and lifesteal add far more. It's been used in wild and is a decent combo but already too slow.