Hearthpwn

Seems to continue the over-arching trend of the standard format to relegate certain classes to the dumpster and then adding expensive power cards to lift them out again on rotations. It's a bit transparent at this point.

Overall it's okay, it didn't really change much at all imo. Perhaps warlock got a boost, but I think we'll have to wait and see until the aggro lists have been refined.

For the first time right after a HS expansion I am not excited to play the game. I mean, HS comes and goes - but this is the first time I've felt this way right after an expansion, which is off.

I can't put my finger on a specific thing, but I think six issues feel like the key ones for me:

1. Three full expansions per year as opposed to adventures. That is a lot of grinding, even if you buy pre-purchase packs (like I usually do). I don't mind spending money on HS (I don't have time to play more than a few games per day and I like to play several decks), but I have a certain treshold which seems like it's a lot less than what Blizz wants.

2. Heavy weighting of legendary and epic cards as staples make the grind even more noticable.

3. Class balance has been in shambles ever since standard was introduced as a format. Adjustments to class balance always target (at least in part) cards from the core sets, while new more unbalanced cards are introduced to collect.

4. Games have gotten very similar, A lot of classes have very similar decks as their most competitive archetype and the standard card-pool is too limited to stray far from the powerhouse combos and still stay competitive.

5. Almost all non-curvy decks rely on big "SMACK!" rounds or repeated chances of highrolling. I'm not saying non-random is always good. Pirate warrior was probably the least random deck we've ever seen in HS, and it felt rather dreary to face 6 of them in a row on rank 5.

6. Wild format feels uncompetitive and like a casual mode with stars. With less than stellar support for blizzard it is also noticable that the playerbase plays less well (doesn't necessarily apply to you specifically, dear wild-gamer, so don't take offense) there.

I understand that this is a simple game at heart, made for big shiny clashes and wacky moments. Problem is that the wackiness is now almost all that is left. It's either T5 twig->medivih->infestation, highroll a tirions on evolve, keleseth round 2, barnes round 4, raza OTK or a 20 attack board of murlocs on T6 or bust. There is a lot of fun entertainment, but it often feels like you're not playing a game as much as rolling a dice.

Anyone else with the expansion blues, or is it just me?

... and it's Divine Favor.

Expansion day is like catnip on aggro paladins. :)

Call to arms look absurdly strong. Psychic scream seems good.

I'd say it's a decent expansion overall. A bit many cards with "random" in them.

Seems decent enough. Some cool cards, a new solo mode which was ok.

I think there is a lot of meme-cards though, and way too many cards with "random" printed on them.

Murloc pally isn't bad, it's one of the best decks in the game.

Sure, pretty much nobody plays it - but that's another issue entirely.

Played control warrior for a fair bit in the past. Have given up now, it's not possible because it's too slow and pretty much every deck just gets a gazillion chances to highroll you.

I like raza, puts the pressure back on all those snowball decks. Traditional control playstyle is just dead, it can't work in metas where almost any competitive deck's win condition is include as many chances to roll big while playing on curve as possible. 

You'll have to draw The Darkness in time, which you won't always do. In most matches it will be an extremely bad card. You can also win without raza in a lot of games (I speak from experience playing razapriest) and even if playing against an active the darkness you can probably wait it out. Then you have the games where you would have won without The Darkness anyway.

So if we assume raza is 10% of ladder, you have a card that might be secure the win in probably way under half of those games. 

The Darkness isn't going even put a dent in raza's gameplan overall, and when the fad passes and people remove it from their decks to avoid being crushed by tempo and aggro decks it will do even less.

More cards will almost always make decks worse. Think of it this way, when you add cards you are effectively making cycling harder, and cycling is the most powerful thing you can do in HS.

And of course, some will think "but I can have these powerful cards in my deck and it will have more strength". But that's the wrong way of thinking about it. If your decks needs more cards to gain enough power to be competitive, then its efficiency is too low. You already know this intuitively from 30-card decks... if you consistently do not draw the cards you need, then its efficiency is spread to thin. 

Even in MTG, where you lose the game when you run out of cards, you'll very rarely see decks go over the minimum.

Quote from YJHS2000 >>

Could seriously mess with exodia mage... not sure how useful otherwise

Harrison jones, DMH warrior. Could perhaps work.

Untill someone figures out a new ultra-fast list which will then be the go-to deck of choice.

It's a bit bland I think. Barnes is a pretty boring card for example, and I expect recruit to be used for the same type of highrolling decks. The understatted minions / overcosted spells makes it a poor candidate for aggro, and mid-range will probably want to use conditional minions like bonemare instead of pulling them.

I'd rather see graveyard mechanics and deck ordering mechanics.

Zoolock incoming.... hard.

You have a cheap clear with a body, which curves into the strongest dragon in the game. Running 2 should be a no-brainer. It can also allow you to cut pain, if you're worried about slots.

It's just crap, you have too many cheap spells for it to do anything good. 50% of the time you'll just be playing a 2-cost minion in the start of the game, and in long games you probably don't even want to draw.

+ mage already has 2 very strong 2-cost minions.

Trash tier.