Albatross is not a tech card, because it doesn't really have a downside. 3 4/3 is a fair body, and puts 2 dead draws into the enemy deck. That is it's absolutely worst case scenario. Against spell mage, Reno, etc. it adds those same dead draws while also shutting down more cards in their deck. It is not a tech card.
This is wrong. The downside is that the card has no synergy with your own win condidion, and will weaken your deck in most matchups. A fair statline is simply not good enough to justify a spot.
When a Card sees a ton of Play in wild - then it is probably among the strongest of Cards.
No, it means it is a strong COUNTER to some completely OP decks.
Why is everyone saying that Bad Luck Albatross has stats that are far too good? Look at almost any three cost minion played in the meta or otherwise, they either have some battlecry/deathrattle or something along those lines that are also better for the stat(effect). Another tech card, seeing not much use as freeze mage isn't a thing would be Living Dragonbreath, literally makes it so that minions can't be frozen for 3/4 stat line. Magic carpet has stats of 1/6 and gives every one cost minion +1 attack and rush. Overconfident Org has 1/6 stat with taunt and +2 damage at full health. Southsea Captain is a 3/3 that gives all other pirates a +1/+1. I know that some of the cards here are epic cards, but their cost efficiency is what's we're arguing about.
And to those who say it should be 1 copy or different copies, it will loses the entire reason it's a tech card.
That card is good only because of highlander cards, even than it isn't overpowered. 3 hp isn't hard to deal with board wise almost anyone and their grandma got some form of damage, either from a minion or a spell. The deathrattle can be silenced, hexed(or any other transform effect), so on and so forth. If you hate a tech card so much, there's a tech card for that, get an owl. And if you're argument is that it's not a reliable draw, neither is Albatross. The other decks it disables aren't good in the first place. Only spell mage runs out of fuel faster than a supercar, Racist/pure/pala pala just sorta falls off curve as their archetype support isn't that good yet.
And in control situations, the opponent wins in fatigue.
Arguably, it is a 4/3 with a deathrattle that could be a potential archetype counter or a dead draw, but let's the opponent win in fatigue. And priest usually go control anyway. If anything, I think it is balanced. But I'm nothing but a new player who knows nothing
Why is everyone saying that Bad Luck Albatross has stats that are far too good? Look at almost any three cost minion played in the meta or otherwise, they either have some battlecry/deathrattle or something along those lines that are also better for the stat(effect). Another tech card, seeing not much use as freeze mage isn't a thing would be Living Dragonbreath, literally makes it so that minions can't be frozen for 3/4 stat line. Magic carpet has stats of 1/6 and gives every one cost minion +1 attack and rush. Overconfident Org has 1/6 stat with taunt and +2 damage at full health. Southsea Captain is a 3/3 that gives all other pirates a +1/+1. I know that some of the cards here are epic cards, but their cost efficiency is what's we're arguing about.
Your examples are not very good to be honest. Living Dragonbreath is only good in that specific scenario anti Freeze Mage, otherwise it's a basically useless vanilla 3-drop. Albatross's effect is still an upside in every other matchup, it doesn't just counter highlanders. Combo decks that need to reach their combo as a win condition are also soft countered. Even outside of these scenarios, those 2 dead draws in any deck are still bad for the opponent. I'd also like to point out that Albatross being a beast fucks up Scavenger's Ingenuity, there's a cool Boar Hunter combo deck right now that I'm enjoying - Albatross hard counters that too.
Let's also not ignore the fact that while in other classes Albatross might be fine, Priest can easily put like 8 Albatrosses in your deck by just playing his res stuff.
The other cards you mentioned are simply not tech cards.
I see, it does counter many other decks. Thanks for telling me about it, but if it does get nerfed, will it be the stats than? or the beast tag?
I assume it will be the stat and not the beast tag, sine beasts are only ever used by hunters, or at least, from what I know of.
I still think it's fairly weak and priest kinda falls off on card draw as they now have next to none, or one to be exact and that's a 4 cost card that does nothing against a board with no buffs/board effects.
But I see your point, it counters far too many possibly viable decks and made the meta rather stale. But we're also still seeing DH people in waves, so...
Also, the reason I didn't mention tech cards is so that the stats and effect could be compared. Since some pointed out that it has outrageous stats for effect
Why is everyone saying that Bad Luck Albatross has stats that are far too good? Look at almost any three cost minion played in the meta or otherwise, they either have some battlecry/deathrattle or something along those lines that are also better for the stat(effect). Another tech card, seeing not much use as freeze mage isn't a thing would be Living Dragonbreath, literally makes it so that minions can't be frozen for 3/4 stat line. Magic carpet has stats of 1/6 and gives every one cost minion +1 attack and rush. Overconfident Org has 1/6 stat with taunt and +2 damage at full health. Southsea Captain is a 3/3 that gives all other pirates a +1/+1. I know that some of the cards here are epic cards, but their cost efficiency is what's we're arguing about.
And to those who say it should be 1 copy or different copies, it will loses the entire reason it's a tech card.
That card is good only because of highlander cards, even than it isn't overpowered. 3 hp isn't hard to deal with board wise almost anyone and their grandma got some form of damage, either from a minion or a spell. The deathrattle can be silenced, hexed(or any other transform effect), so on and so forth. If you hate a tech card so much, there's a tech card for that, get an owl. And if you're argument is that it's not a reliable draw, neither is Albatross. The other decks it disables aren't good in the first place. Only spell mage runs out of fuel faster than a supercar, Racist/pure/pala pala just sorta falls off curve as their archetype support isn't that good yet.
And in control situations, the opponent wins in fatigue.
Arguably, it is a 4/3 with a deathrattle that could be a potential archetype counter or a dead draw, but let's the opponent win in fatigue. And priest usually go control anyway. If anything, I think it is balanced. But I'm nothing but a new player who knows nothing
If it's being played to pretty much disable a deck, then it should have a drawback too. Spellbreaker cost 4, this should cost 4.
Why is everyone saying that Bad Luck Albatross has stats that are far too good? Look at almost any three cost minion played in the meta or otherwise, they either have some battlecry/deathrattle or something along those lines that are also better for the stat(effect). Another tech card, seeing not much use as freeze mage isn't a thing would be Living Dragonbreath, literally makes it so that minions can't be frozen for 3/4 stat line. Magic carpet has stats of 1/6 and gives every one cost minion +1 attack and rush. Overconfident Org has 1/6 stat with taunt and +2 damage at full health. Southsea Captain is a 3/3 that gives all other pirates a +1/+1. I know that some of the cards here are epic cards, but their cost efficiency is what's we're arguing about.
Your examples are not very good to be honest. Living Dragonbreath is only good in that specific scenario anti Freeze Mage, otherwise it's a basically useless vanilla 3-drop. Albatross's effect is still an upside in every other matchup, it doesn't just counter highlanders. Combo decks that need to reach their combo as a win condition are also soft countered. Even outside of these scenarios, those 2 dead draws in any deck are still bad for the opponent. I'd also like to point out that Albatross being a beast fucks up Scavenger's Ingenuity, there's a cool Boar Hunter combo deck right now that I'm enjoying - Albatross hard counters that too.
Let's also not ignore the fact that while in other classes Albatross might be fine, Priest can easily put like 8 Albatrosses in your deck by just playing his res stuff.
The other cards you mentioned are simply not tech cards.
I see, it does counter many other decks. Thanks for telling me about it, but if it does get nerfed, will it be the stats than? or the beast tag?
I assume it will be the stat and not the beast tag, sine beasts are only ever used by hunters, or at least, from what I know of.
I still think it's fairly weak and priest kinda falls off on card draw as they now have next to none, or one to be exact and that's a 4 cost card that does nothing against a board with no buffs/board effects.
But I see your point, it counters far too many possibly viable decks and made the meta rather stale. But we're also still seeing DH people in waves, so...
Also, the reason I didn't mention tech cards is so that the stats and effect could be compared. Since some pointed out that it has outrageous stats for effect
Why is everyone saying that Bad Luck Albatross has stats that are far too good? Look at almost any three cost minion played in the meta or otherwise, they either have some battlecry/deathrattle or something along those lines that are also better for the stat(effect). Another tech card, seeing not much use as freeze mage isn't a thing would be Living Dragonbreath, literally makes it so that minions can't be frozen for 3/4 stat line. Magic carpet has stats of 1/6 and gives every one cost minion +1 attack and rush. Overconfident Org has 1/6 stat with taunt and +2 damage at full health. Southsea Captain is a 3/3 that gives all other pirates a +1/+1. I know that some of the cards here are epic cards, but their cost efficiency is what's we're arguing about.
And to those who say it should be 1 copy or different copies, it will loses the entire reason it's a tech card.
That card is good only because of highlander cards, even than it isn't overpowered. 3 hp isn't hard to deal with board wise almost anyone and their grandma got some form of damage, either from a minion or a spell. The deathrattle can be silenced, hexed(or any other transform effect), so on and so forth. If you hate a tech card so much, there's a tech card for that, get an owl. And if you're argument is that it's not a reliable draw, neither is Albatross. The other decks it disables aren't good in the first place. Only spell mage runs out of fuel faster than a supercar, Racist/pure/pala pala just sorta falls off curve as their archetype support isn't that good yet.
And in control situations, the opponent wins in fatigue.
Arguably, it is a 4/3 with a deathrattle that could be a potential archetype counter or a dead draw, but let's the opponent win in fatigue. And priest usually go control anyway. If anything, I think it is balanced. But I'm nothing but a new player who knows nothing
Oh and you're wrong about spell mage, it's a perfectly viable deck that shouldn't be a casualty because of some weird notion that Highlander decks are overpowered. I took a priest to fatigue just this morning with it and it could have gone either way, it's got plenty of gas. If you want to include a tech card against an entire deck type and that tech card is arguably still effective against everything else, then it should be a little clunky against everything else. Priest, rogue and warlock don't blink an eye at playing albatross as a three drop. Look at geist, it was a trash 6 drop that won you the game against Jade druid, and had some beneficial effects against warlock and warrior. Plus, if you hadn't noticed, silence is hard to come by these days - you have to run an appropriately statted minion that totally sucks for the effect.
Outside rez priest spawning 6 birds before drawing the other Albatross, the card hurts two distinct genres, one is HL. This is while the other genre that is supposed to be new, like priest's rebuild, paladin librams etc, but it doesn't hurt the other classes and decks so the problem isn't Albatross, the problem is the wording. Maybe HL cards should stay as are, but no-minion mage should be "If started without minions in deck". Doesn't change much outside one card that isn't "supposed" to be there, and you get the genre back. If that changes, HL wording should be considered to change as well.
Next rotation should show a new HS, all priest's current rez cards are eliminated (including some 'staple' taunts), no galakronds, no lackeys, no quests, no zephyr/DQ alex, while so far - a new class that rocked the boat, a renewed class that still pisses everyone off (called it), and new mechanics for numerous classes, while punching no one in the nuts, sort of.
I say give it time to roll. Mages have HL deck that's fantastic, wait with the all-spell, it'll come. As is, I vote no nerf, and depending on next expansion - 'yay' or 'nay' to wording change.
I also play this card in my cubelock and I´m glad I have two of those, as my opponent draws one Albatros very early most time. Still have games where they draw them very fast and then "hello reno". I really hate that card. Imo double current live would be better, but this would distroy the card completely, I know. But still hate it. So I´m very glad about this "little" annoying birds.
Why is everyone saying that Bad Luck Albatross has stats that are far too good? Look at almost any three cost minion played in the meta or otherwise, they either have some battlecry/deathrattle or something along those lines that are also better for the stat(effect). Another tech card, seeing not much use as freeze mage isn't a thing would be Living Dragonbreath, literally makes it so that minions can't be frozen for 3/4 stat line. Magic carpet has stats of 1/6 and gives every one cost minion +1 attack and rush. Overconfident Org has 1/6 stat with taunt and +2 damage at full health. Southsea Captain is a 3/3 that gives all other pirates a +1/+1. I know that some of the cards here are epic cards, but their cost efficiency is what's we're arguing about.
And to those who say it should be 1 copy or different copies, it will loses the entire reason it's a tech card.
That card is good only because of highlander cards, even than it isn't overpowered. 3 hp isn't hard to deal with board wise almost anyone and their grandma got some form of damage, either from a minion or a spell. The deathrattle can be silenced, hexed(or any other transform effect), so on and so forth. If you hate a tech card so much, there's a tech card for that, get an owl. And if you're argument is that it's not a reliable draw, neither is Albatross. The other decks it disables aren't good in the first place. Only spell mage runs out of fuel faster than a supercar, Racist/pure/pala pala just sorta falls off curve as their archetype support isn't that good yet.
And in control situations, the opponent wins in fatigue.
Arguably, it is a 4/3 with a deathrattle that could be a potential archetype counter or a dead draw, but let's the opponent win in fatigue. And priest usually go control anyway. If anything, I think it is balanced. But I'm nothing but a new player who knows nothing
Oh and you're wrong about spell mage, it's a perfectly viable deck that shouldn't be a casualty because of some weird notion that Highlander decks are overpowered. I took a priest to fatigue just this morning with it and it could have gone either way, it's got plenty of gas. If you want to include a tech card against an entire deck type and that tech card is arguably still effective against everything else, then it should be a little clunky against everything else. Priest, rogue and warlock don't blink an eye at playing albatross as a three drop. Look at geist, it was a trash 6 drop that won you the game against Jade druid, and had some beneficial effects against warlock and warrior. Plus, if you hadn't noticed, silence is hard to come by these days - you have to run an appropriately statted minion that totally sucks for the effect.
I must've been wrong, I just assumed that an only spell mage is so reliant on card draw that it either snow balls to oblivion or dies in the next 8 turns and loses in the late game.
Why is everyone saying that Bad Luck Albatross has stats that are far too good? Look at almost any three cost minion played in the meta or otherwise, they either have some battlecry/deathrattle or something along those lines that are also better for the stat(effect). Another tech card, seeing not much use as freeze mage isn't a thing would be Living Dragonbreath, literally makes it so that minions can't be frozen for 3/4 stat line. Magic carpet has stats of 1/6 and gives every one cost minion +1 attack and rush. Overconfident Org has 1/6 stat with taunt and +2 damage at full health. Southsea Captain is a 3/3 that gives all other pirates a +1/+1. I know that some of the cards here are epic cards, but their cost efficiency is what's we're arguing about.
And to those who say it should be 1 copy or different copies, it will loses the entire reason it's a tech card.
That card is good only because of highlander cards, even than it isn't overpowered. 3 hp isn't hard to deal with board wise almost anyone and their grandma got some form of damage, either from a minion or a spell. The deathrattle can be silenced, hexed(or any other transform effect), so on and so forth. If you hate a tech card so much, there's a tech card for that, get an owl. And if you're argument is that it's not a reliable draw, neither is Albatross. The other decks it disables aren't good in the first place. Only spell mage runs out of fuel faster than a supercar, Racist/pure/pala pala just sorta falls off curve as their archetype support isn't that good yet.
And in control situations, the opponent wins in fatigue.
Arguably, it is a 4/3 with a deathrattle that could be a potential archetype counter or a dead draw, but let's the opponent win in fatigue. And priest usually go control anyway. If anything, I think it is balanced. But I'm nothing but a new player who knows nothing
Oh and you're wrong about spell mage, it's a perfectly viable deck that shouldn't be a casualty because of some weird notion that Highlander decks are overpowered. I took a priest to fatigue just this morning with it and it could have gone either way, it's got plenty of gas. If you want to include a tech card against an entire deck type and that tech card is arguably still effective against everything else, then it should be a little clunky against everything else. Priest, rogue and warlock don't blink an eye at playing albatross as a three drop. Look at geist, it was a trash 6 drop that won you the game against Jade druid, and had some beneficial effects against warlock and warrior. Plus, if you hadn't noticed, silence is hard to come by these days - you have to run an appropriately statted minion that totally sucks for the effect.
fair point, but shouldn't only spell mage run like a hex or something in there? I'm sorry if i have a lot of misconceptions, I just have a lot of thoughts that conflict each other and i need them cleared up
Why is everyone saying that Bad Luck Albatross has stats that are far too good? Look at almost any three cost minion played in the meta or otherwise, they either have some battlecry/deathrattle or something along those lines that are also better for the stat(effect). Another tech card, seeing not much use as freeze mage isn't a thing would be Living Dragonbreath, literally makes it so that minions can't be frozen for 3/4 stat line. Magic carpet has stats of 1/6 and gives every one cost minion +1 attack and rush. Overconfident Org has 1/6 stat with taunt and +2 damage at full health. Southsea Captain is a 3/3 that gives all other pirates a +1/+1. I know that some of the cards here are epic cards, but their cost efficiency is what's we're arguing about.
And to those who say it should be 1 copy or different copies, it will loses the entire reason it's a tech card.
That card is good only because of highlander cards, even than it isn't overpowered. 3 hp isn't hard to deal with board wise almost anyone and their grandma got some form of damage, either from a minion or a spell. The deathrattle can be silenced, hexed(or any other transform effect), so on and so forth. If you hate a tech card so much, there's a tech card for that, get an owl. And if you're argument is that it's not a reliable draw, neither is Albatross. The other decks it disables aren't good in the first place. Only spell mage runs out of fuel faster than a supercar, Racist/pure/pala pala just sorta falls off curve as their archetype support isn't that good yet.
And in control situations, the opponent wins in fatigue.
Arguably, it is a 4/3 with a deathrattle that could be a potential archetype counter or a dead draw, but let's the opponent win in fatigue. And priest usually go control anyway. If anything, I think it is balanced. But I'm nothing but a new player who knows nothing
Oh and you're wrong about spell mage, it's a perfectly viable deck that shouldn't be a casualty because of some weird notion that Highlander decks are overpowered. I took a priest to fatigue just this morning with it and it could have gone either way, it's got plenty of gas. If you want to include a tech card against an entire deck type and that tech card is arguably still effective against everything else, then it should be a little clunky against everything else. Priest, rogue and warlock don't blink an eye at playing albatross as a three drop. Look at geist, it was a trash 6 drop that won you the game against Jade druid, and had some beneficial effects against warlock and warrior. Plus, if you hadn't noticed, silence is hard to come by these days - you have to run an appropriately statted minion that totally sucks for the effect.
fair point, but shouldn't only spell mage run like a hex or something in there? I'm sorry if i have a lot of misconceptions, I just have a lot of thoughts that conflict each other and i need them cleared up
I assume you mean polymorph? I can't figure what to cut for it, seems more of a control option. I play the quest to give me more of a late game and the gas you're talking about - it's probably a mistake but I want to enjoy the game and it does make things more fun. You're trying to get tempo using draconic, the 5 dmg spell that pulls a 5 drop, and the 4 drop secret. But there are 4 draw cards and you can get more from the discover a 3 cost spell, or you can get the minion refill spell. The minion refill spell also counts when your hand runs out and you need to restock. It generates a surprising amount of value. Sometimes it gets stranded with no cards but it happens less than you'd expect.
When a Card sees a ton of Play in wild - then it is probably among the strongest of Cards. That is true for Albatross without the shadow of a doubt. The card has a deck winrate and played winrate of 59% in wild and is among the top 20 Cards played there Right now.
In Standard the numbers for this card are not so much different - 58%. And OP is Right: The popularity of this Card makes certain decks Pretty much unplayable.
Now does this mean it should be nerfed? People are Right in calling it a tech-card. My guess is that the Card is WAY too universally strong for a tech Card. I am guessing that it outperformes most other tech Cards in Terms of winrate. A tech Card should be somethign that you put into your deck to counter specific strategys, not to be just a superstar-Card no matter what. I'll go check some other tech Cards now...
Ok lol. The next best tech card in Terms of winrate is sacrificial pact. And that one is WAAAAAAAAAY more narrow. Looking at the numbers for Albatross is actually pretty ridiculous… The guy has a higer deck and even PLAYED winrate than Zephrys the Great.
Albatross should probably just be a 3/3 to make it more of a sacrifice to run the card in your deck.
Albatross should actually be a 2/2. That is how powerful it's effect is, that is should receive a 3 stat penalty for the effect. It doesn't have such penalty.
Albatross is a card with basically no reason to not play it unless your deck has a very specific strategy which it doesn't fit into, meaning, Combo decks., because you cannot really properly fit Tech Cards in Combo decks.
This is wrong. The downside is that the card has no synergy with your own win condidion, and will weaken your deck in most matchups. A fair statline is simply not good enough to justify a spot.
No, it means it is a strong COUNTER to some completely OP decks.
Every Tech Card is a card that has no synergy with your win condition, that is why it is a Tech Card. Decks can be made around Tech Cards and use them as part of their strategy and win condition, but otherwise, Tech cards don't have synergy with the deck, that is why they are Tech, they are included to address external factors that aren't part of your deck.
Albatross itself has no downside because the Stats don't have a penalty compared to a basic minion of the same cost.
Albatross is not a counter to OP decks, Albatross is a counter to literally every single deck in the game. Albatross dilutes the deck, makes their less effective, causes them to draw useless cards at random. This is useful against EVERY SINGLE DECK in the game, that has ever existed, and that ever will exist.
I'm not sure if people fail to actually realize this, Albatross is itself of the best cards in the game and obviously, statistics will reflect that. The ability to force your opponent to skip draws is an extremely powerful ability in any card game, Albatross just happens to have a 3 cost body with no stat penalty.
Thank you. This is exactly what I have been saying. It's not a tech card when it works against every opponent's deck. But by these people's logic, Flamestrike would be a tech card. because there technically can be a deck that can win without minions going face. Lol the logic.
I think Albatross's Deathrattle should be changed to read: “Shuffle Two 1/1 Albatrosses into your opponent's deck that Summon When Drawn”
This change would still disrupt Highlander as the card was intended while also not disrupting everyone else's draw since the Albatrosses get summoned and then draw a card in much the same way Warrior's Bombs work.
Dont you think as well that Bad Luck Albatross is just way too overpowered?
This card is making non-spell Mage, pure Paladin and any kind of Highlander deck completely useless... but what kind of Nerf would be appropriate? Maybe shuffling 1 instead of 2?
What do you think?
Just play x2 Wyrmrest Purifier and pull them with Call to Adventure. You can make a better deck anyway without going Pure Pally right off the bat.
In No Minion Mage, Pure Paladin, and Highlander decks there are 2-3 cards used that apply to the deck restrictions. Highlander has 1 class specific card in a couple classes plus Zephyrs and DQAlex. No Minion Mage has 3 spells that only function without minions. Pure Paladin has 2 cards that require no neutral cards.
For Highlander decks, worst case is you have 3 weakened cards in your deck until you draw 1 of the Albatross.
For Spell Mage, you have 3 cards mostly dead, and 2 weakened until you draw both albatross.
For Pure Paladin, you have 4 weakened cards until you draw both albatross.
Highlander. I've had about 40 games where I've had albatross shuffled into my deck, and only 1 of those times I lost because I couldn't activate Zephyrs, which would have saved my game. The rest, I either won, or lost because I was against a favored deck, or got out played.
Pure Paladin. Honestly, with the "purity" archetype, it should have a class specific card that turns all neutral cards into random Paladin cards. 2 of the cards generate absolute RnG, and the other 2 equip a weapon... Hardly a win condition.
No-Minion Mage.... Generally, you're holding the legendary until quite late anyways. Apex Blast (?) Is still 5 mana, 5 damage, and the 1 mana still discovers a minion. They can still be used in a pinch, but this class has so much other card generation, that you should be able to find other cards to get by until you draw out the albatross, and get the full effect of these 4 cards... Generally only 1 of the cards in the discover minion situation is viable... So, use it, and pick that one.
If you're seeing too many Albatross Priests, it's because too many people are playing NM Mage and Highlander. Change decks until the Priests disappear, then change back. Honestly, I would HATE this game if you could just play one deck. Being forced to change decks keeps the game interesting. Things only become problems when people overuse one strategy, and everyone else finds a hard counter. Then there's equal part counter, to OP decks... Then inevitably, the OP deck players get sore, because they had an amazing win % for a short while, and all of the sudden, they can't win.
Knowing when to shift decks is just as important as having the ability to pilot these decks.
Quality players can play multiple decks and keep winning. Changing decks to fit the meta. When a majority of players are playing a certain deck, a smart player runs a deck they know will beat most of the decks they will run into. That's strategy.
The answer isn't running to a forum quickly to express your outrage at cards that counter "your deck". It's working around it. As soon as the meta shifts. You can go right back to "your deck"... There will hopefully never be a meta where you can sit on one deck for an entire expansion and consistantly win. THAT is when something needs a nerf.
In No Minion Mage, Pure Paladin, and Highlander decks there are 2-3 cards used that apply to the deck restrictions. Highlander has 1 class specific card in a couple classes plus Zephyrs and DQAlex. No Minion Mage has 3 spells that only function without minions. Pure Paladin has 2 cards that require no neutral cards.
For Highlander decks, worst case is you have 3 weakened cards in your deck until you draw 1 of the Albatross.
For Spell Mage, you have 3 cards mostly dead, and 2 weakened until you draw both albatross.
For Pure Paladin, you have 4 weakened cards until you draw both albatross.
Highlander. I've had about 40 games where I've had albatross shuffled into my deck, and only 1 of those times I lost because I couldn't activate Zephyrs, which would have saved my game. The rest, I either won, or lost because I was against a favored deck, or got out played.
Pure Paladin. Honestly, with the "purity" archetype, it should have a class specific card that turns all neutral cards into random Paladin cards. 2 of the cards generate absolute RnG, and the other 2 equip a weapon... Hardly a win condition.
No-Minion Mage.... Generally, you're holding the legendary until quite late anyways. Apex Blast (?) Is still 5 mana, 5 damage, and the 1 mana still discovers a minion. They can still be used in a pinch, but this class has so much other card generation, that you should be able to find other cards to get by until you draw out the albatross, and get the full effect of these 4 cards... Generally only 1 of the cards in the discover minion situation is viable... So, use it, and pick that one.
If you're seeing too many Albatross Priests, it's because too many people are playing NM Mage and Highlander. Change decks until the Priests disappear, then change back. Honestly, I would HATE this game if you could just play one deck. Being forced to change decks keeps the game interesting. Things only become problems when people overuse one strategy, and everyone else finds a hard counter. Then there's equal part counter, to OP decks... Then inevitably, the OP deck players get sore, because they had an amazing win % for a short while, and all of the sudden, they can't win.
Knowing when to shift decks is just as important as having the ability to pilot these decks.
Quality players can play multiple decks and keep winning. Changing decks to fit the meta. When a majority of players are playing a certain deck, a smart player runs a deck they know will beat most of the decks they will run into. That's strategy.
The answer isn't running to a forum quickly to express your outrage at cards that counter "your deck". It's working around it. As soon as the meta shifts. You can go right back to "your deck"... There will hopefully never be a meta where you can sit on one deck for an entire expansion and consistantly win. THAT is when something needs a nerf.
Or albatross could cost 4 like it should, and people who play it can occasionally get hosed by an aggro deck for including a tech card. Hell it probably wouldn't even phase priest if it was correctly costed, what do they do on turn 4 anyway. Besides, I don't believe switching decks is ever gonna stop people playing that card or priest for that matter.
This is wrong. The downside is that the card has no synergy with your own win condidion, and will weaken your deck in most matchups. A fair statline is simply not good enough to justify a spot.
No, it means it is a strong COUNTER to some completely OP decks.
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https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/card-discussion/205920-legendary-tier-list-crafting-guide
Albatros is a way to win against highlander deck. It is fine as it is.
Where shall I start...
Why is everyone saying that Bad Luck Albatross has stats that are far too good? Look at almost any three cost minion played in the meta or otherwise, they either have some battlecry/deathrattle or something along those lines that are also better for the stat(effect). Another tech card, seeing not much use as freeze mage isn't a thing would be Living Dragonbreath, literally makes it so that minions can't be frozen for 3/4 stat line. Magic carpet has stats of 1/6 and gives every one cost minion +1 attack and rush. Overconfident Org has 1/6 stat with taunt and +2 damage at full health. Southsea Captain is a 3/3 that gives all other pirates a +1/+1. I know that some of the cards here are epic cards, but their cost efficiency is what's we're arguing about.
And to those who say it should be 1 copy or different copies, it will loses the entire reason it's a tech card.
That card is good only because of highlander cards, even than it isn't overpowered. 3 hp isn't hard to deal with board wise almost anyone and their grandma got some form of damage, either from a minion or a spell. The deathrattle can be silenced, hexed(or any other transform effect), so on and so forth. If you hate a tech card so much, there's a tech card for that, get an owl. And if you're argument is that it's not a reliable draw, neither is Albatross. The other decks it disables aren't good in the first place. Only spell mage runs out of fuel faster than a supercar, Racist/pure/pala pala just sorta falls off curve as their archetype support isn't that good yet.
And in control situations, the opponent wins in fatigue.
Arguably, it is a 4/3 with a deathrattle that could be a potential archetype counter or a dead draw, but let's the opponent win in fatigue. And priest usually go control anyway. If anything, I think it is balanced. But I'm nothing but a new player who knows nothing
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Your examples are not very good to be honest. Living Dragonbreath is only good in that specific scenario anti Freeze Mage, otherwise it's a basically useless vanilla 3-drop. Albatross's effect is still an upside in every other matchup, it doesn't just counter highlanders. Combo decks that need to reach their combo as a win condition are also soft countered. Even outside of these scenarios, those 2 dead draws in any deck are still bad for the opponent. I'd also like to point out that Albatross being a beast fucks up Scavenger's Ingenuity, there's a cool Boar Hunter combo deck right now that I'm enjoying - Albatross hard counters that too.
Let's also not ignore the fact that while in other classes Albatross might be fine, Priest can easily put like 8 Albatrosses in your deck by just playing his res stuff.
The other cards you mentioned are simply not tech cards.
I see, it does counter many other decks. Thanks for telling me about it, but if it does get nerfed, will it be the stats than? or the beast tag?
I assume it will be the stat and not the beast tag, sine beasts are only ever used by hunters, or at least, from what I know of.
I still think it's fairly weak and priest kinda falls off on card draw as they now have next to none, or one to be exact and that's a 4 cost card that does nothing against a board with no buffs/board effects.
But I see your point, it counters far too many possibly viable decks and made the meta rather stale. But we're also still seeing DH people in waves, so...
Also, the reason I didn't mention tech cards is so that the stats and effect could be compared. Since some pointed out that it has outrageous stats for effect
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Please just stop whining. These are counter cards for specific archetypes. All specific archetypes needs countercards.
If it's being played to pretty much disable a deck, then it should have a drawback too. Spellbreaker cost 4, this should cost 4.
I see, it does counter many other decks. Thanks for telling me about it, but if it does get nerfed, will it be the stats than? or the beast tag?
I assume it will be the stat and not the beast tag, sine beasts are only ever used by hunters, or at least, from what I know of.
I still think it's fairly weak and priest kinda falls off on card draw as they now have next to none, or one to be exact and that's a 4 cost card that does nothing against a board with no buffs/board effects.
But I see your point, it counters far too many possibly viable decks and made the meta rather stale. But we're also still seeing DH people in waves, so...
Also, the reason I didn't mention tech cards is so that the stats and effect could be compared. Since some pointed out that it has outrageous stats for effect
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Oh and you're wrong about spell mage, it's a perfectly viable deck that shouldn't be a casualty because of some weird notion that Highlander decks are overpowered. I took a priest to fatigue just this morning with it and it could have gone either way, it's got plenty of gas. If you want to include a tech card against an entire deck type and that tech card is arguably still effective against everything else, then it should be a little clunky against everything else. Priest, rogue and warlock don't blink an eye at playing albatross as a three drop. Look at geist, it was a trash 6 drop that won you the game against Jade druid, and had some beneficial effects against warlock and warrior. Plus, if you hadn't noticed, silence is hard to come by these days - you have to run an appropriately statted minion that totally sucks for the effect.
Outside rez priest spawning 6 birds before drawing the other Albatross, the card hurts two distinct genres, one is HL. This is while the other genre that is supposed to be new, like priest's rebuild, paladin librams etc, but it doesn't hurt the other classes and decks so the problem isn't Albatross, the problem is the wording. Maybe HL cards should stay as are, but no-minion mage should be "If started without minions in deck". Doesn't change much outside one card that isn't "supposed" to be there, and you get the genre back. If that changes, HL wording should be considered to change as well.
Next rotation should show a new HS, all priest's current rez cards are eliminated (including some 'staple' taunts), no galakronds, no lackeys, no quests, no zephyr/DQ alex, while so far - a new class that rocked the boat, a renewed class that still pisses everyone off (called it), and new mechanics for numerous classes, while punching no one in the nuts, sort of.
I say give it time to roll. Mages have HL deck that's fantastic, wait with the all-spell, it'll come. As is, I vote no nerf, and depending on next expansion - 'yay' or 'nay' to wording change.
I also play this card in my cubelock and I´m glad I have two of those, as my opponent draws one Albatros very early most time. Still have games where they draw them very fast and then "hello reno". I really hate that card. Imo double current live would be better, but this would distroy the card completely, I know. But still hate it. So I´m very glad about this "little" annoying birds.
I must've been wrong, I just assumed that an only spell mage is so reliant on card draw that it either snow balls to oblivion or dies in the next 8 turns and loses in the late game.
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Someone got their net deck wrecked by an Albatross, it seems, and took to the boards to rally others to their cause.
fair point, but shouldn't only spell mage run like a hex or something in there? I'm sorry if i have a lot of misconceptions, I just have a lot of thoughts that conflict each other and i need them cleared up
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I assume you mean polymorph? I can't figure what to cut for it, seems more of a control option. I play the quest to give me more of a late game and the gas you're talking about - it's probably a mistake but I want to enjoy the game and it does make things more fun. You're trying to get tempo using draconic, the 5 dmg spell that pulls a 5 drop, and the 4 drop secret. But there are 4 draw cards and you can get more from the discover a 3 cost spell, or you can get the minion refill spell. The minion refill spell also counts when your hand runs out and you need to restock. It generates a surprising amount of value. Sometimes it gets stranded with no cards but it happens less than you'd expect.
Thank you. This is exactly what I have been saying. It's not a tech card when it works against every opponent's deck. But by these people's logic, Flamestrike would be a tech card. because there technically can be a deck that can win without minions going face. Lol the logic.
I think Albatross's Deathrattle should be changed to read: “Shuffle Two 1/1 Albatrosses into your opponent's deck that Summon When Drawn”
This change would still disrupt Highlander as the card was intended while also not disrupting everyone else's draw since the Albatrosses get summoned and then draw a card in much the same way Warrior's Bombs work.
Just play x2 Wyrmrest Purifier and pull them with Call to Adventure. You can make a better deck anyway without going Pure Pally right off the bat.
In No Minion Mage, Pure Paladin, and Highlander decks there are 2-3 cards used that apply to the deck restrictions. Highlander has 1 class specific card in a couple classes plus Zephyrs and DQAlex. No Minion Mage has 3 spells that only function without minions. Pure Paladin has 2 cards that require no neutral cards.
For Highlander decks, worst case is you have 3 weakened cards in your deck until you draw 1 of the Albatross.
For Spell Mage, you have 3 cards mostly dead, and 2 weakened until you draw both albatross.
For Pure Paladin, you have 4 weakened cards until you draw both albatross.
Highlander. I've had about 40 games where I've had albatross shuffled into my deck, and only 1 of those times I lost because I couldn't activate Zephyrs, which would have saved my game. The rest, I either won, or lost because I was against a favored deck, or got out played.
Pure Paladin. Honestly, with the "purity" archetype, it should have a class specific card that turns all neutral cards into random Paladin cards. 2 of the cards generate absolute RnG, and the other 2 equip a weapon... Hardly a win condition.
No-Minion Mage.... Generally, you're holding the legendary until quite late anyways. Apex Blast (?) Is still 5 mana, 5 damage, and the 1 mana still discovers a minion. They can still be used in a pinch, but this class has so much other card generation, that you should be able to find other cards to get by until you draw out the albatross, and get the full effect of these 4 cards... Generally only 1 of the cards in the discover minion situation is viable... So, use it, and pick that one.
If you're seeing too many Albatross Priests, it's because too many people are playing NM Mage and Highlander. Change decks until the Priests disappear, then change back. Honestly, I would HATE this game if you could just play one deck. Being forced to change decks keeps the game interesting. Things only become problems when people overuse one strategy, and everyone else finds a hard counter. Then there's equal part counter, to OP decks... Then inevitably, the OP deck players get sore, because they had an amazing win % for a short while, and all of the sudden, they can't win.
Knowing when to shift decks is just as important as having the ability to pilot these decks.
Quality players can play multiple decks and keep winning. Changing decks to fit the meta. When a majority of players are playing a certain deck, a smart player runs a deck they know will beat most of the decks they will run into. That's strategy.
The answer isn't running to a forum quickly to express your outrage at cards that counter "your deck". It's working around it. As soon as the meta shifts. You can go right back to "your deck"... There will hopefully never be a meta where you can sit on one deck for an entire expansion and consistantly win. THAT is when something needs a nerf.
Or albatross could cost 4 like it should, and people who play it can occasionally get hosed by an aggro deck for including a tech card. Hell it probably wouldn't even phase priest if it was correctly costed, what do they do on turn 4 anyway. Besides, I don't believe switching decks is ever gonna stop people playing that card or priest for that matter.