Disclaimer: This is not a ragepost or a salt thread. I am just trying to have fun experimenting with new ideas for the game, that could actually take place at some point. Please take your negativity away or move along, thank you.
I suggest, as have others, the existence of a sideboard. Sideboards, in other card games, contain a number of cards that can be switched with cards from your main deck, in order to try and play around certain tactics. But, you can use the sideboard, only once you've played the first game with your opponent, since games are usually Bo3.
Now, how Hearthstone can implement a sideboard, since the games on ladder are singles? Honestly there are a couple of ways, but I believe the best choice would be to use it before mulligan. It should be a small extra deck located next to your deck, once you're deckbuilding and should not contain more than 6 cards. Now 6 cards are not much, but it wouldn't be healthy for the game, if players to manipulate their whole deck, making a completely different deck, but rather 1/5 of it. A player before each match begins, once the Heroes are announced by the Innkeeper, will be able to drag cards from their "Sideboard" if they want to, in the place of cards of their main deck, for this match only. There has to be a timer, certainly and it will be followed by the mulligan.
So here's a poorly-made simulation:
You're making your Old God Druid and everything's fine. Once you complete the 30-card deck, 6 extra slots will appear to the side, labelled as "Sideboard". So you put on those 6 cards, some heal, taunt, armor, or techs like Silence/Secret removal etc. You Q on ladder and you find a Priest. Everything's fine, usually Priests are control decks, you just play the game with your ramping and dropping late game bombs. Next you find a Demon Hunter. When the Innkeeper annoucnes the names, you choose the option "Sideboard", and you switch a couple of ramp cards and maybe an Old God, for more healing and taunt options. Next game, there's a Mage, so you choose sideboard and you put in Secret removal in the place of an Old God. And so on.
Personally I don't think this is a completely necessary addition to the game, but all in all, it would test the skill of the players and would create a whole new area of strategies to discuss and make content about. What do you guys think?
It would be a very interesting addition, although I think 6 cards might be too much (maybe 3 or 4 would be better in terms of balance, timing and interface). I think it would definitely favour control decks a lot more than aggro decks but it would be nice to be able to tech cards in for certain matchups where they hardcounter you. It might make people play more cautiously against decks they would normally be strong against.
Would you have to put all of the sideboard cards in or could you just pick 1 or 2?
They did try something like this in tournaments before with specialist format, but it just created an extremely narrow Rock Paper Scissors meta. Week 1 of the first season of Grandmasters in 2019 was control Warrior mirror matches all week and it was excruciating. While I like the idea of being able to mitigate some of your poor matchups with a side deck, Hearthstone doesn’t feel like the right game for it given how effective the tech cards can be at dismantling entire strategies, which effectively squeezes a lot of decks out of the meta since everyone can just back pocket some hard tech against them.
A card game called Eternal actually has something like this implemented.
Basically when you make a deck you can put 5 cards in your "market". You can't have any copies of those cards in your deck. Then certain cards allow you, when played, to swap any card in your hand with a card from the market.
Arguably this wouldn't really work here since you can only have 30 cards in your deck as opposed to 75-150 and 2 copies, or 1 for legs, instead of 4 all around, but something similar would be interesting.
It would be a very interesting addition, although I think 6 cards might be too much (maybe 3 or 4 would be better in terms of balance, timing and interface). I think it would definitely favour control decks a lot more than aggro decks but it would be nice to be able to tech cards in for certain matchups where they hardcounter you. It might make people play more cautiously against decks they would normally be strong against.
Well yeah, I guess 6, as the 1/5th as an analogy to MTG's sideboard, which allows 15 cards to a 60 card deck (1/4th in this case, but anyway). It could be 3-4. I don't think aggro would be weakened. Instead they could use the sideboard for Silence, if their opponent is a controlish deck. Or you know, tune the deck to the needs of every match-up. Some low cost AoE against Warlocks etc etc. I think 3-4 cards could work as well.
Would you have to put all of the sideboard cards in or could you just pick 1 or 2?
Pick as many as you like. There should be a timer though. In the future there could also be some synergies that draw cards from the sideboard, but I guess it could lead to a couple of broken combos hehe.
A card game called Eternal actually has something like this implemented.
Basically when you make a deck you can put 5 cards in your "market". You can't have any copies of those cards in your deck. Then certain cards allow you, when played, to swap any card in your hand with a card from the market.
Arguably this wouldn't really work here since you can only have 30 cards in your deck as opposed to 75-150 and 2 copies, or 1 for legs, instead of 4 all around, but something similar would be interesting.
Interesting at the very least. Though, those restrictions may be problematic.
They did try something like this in tournaments before with specialist format, but it just created an extremely narrow Rock Paper Scissors meta. Week 1 of the first season of Grandmasters in 2019 was control Warrior mirror matches all week and it was excruciating. While I like the idea of being able to mitigate some of your poor matchups with a side deck, Hearthstone doesn’t feel like the right game for it given how effective the tech cards can be at dismantling entire strategies, which effectively squeezes a lot of decks out of the meta since everyone can just back pocket some hard tech against them.
Well, it's not the same actually. And people on tournaments use control decks more often anyway, even without the Specialist format. That doesn't prove their effectiveness. Honestly, how many times were the finals a control-fiesta or a trade-junk carnival? But, you're right that the tech cards in Hearthstone punish people really hard, at least combo players. Aggro is contained, but not so much. Control remains indifferent to most of the tech cards, I may say, but utilizes most of them. However, there is a much bigger problem in my humble opinion, called polarizing. There are decks with polarizing effects. Like the good ol' Crystal Rogue. Playing against an aggro was an instant defeat (95%). playing against control was an instant win (99%).
So, all in all, I believe that the sideboard could mitigate the problem of polarization. But, I do realize that it will create quite often suffocating metas, with heavy techs destroying combo decks.
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Disclaimer: This is not a ragepost or a salt thread. I am just trying to have fun experimenting with new ideas for the game, that could actually take place at some point. Please take your negativity away or move along, thank you.
I suggest, as have others, the existence of a sideboard. Sideboards, in other card games, contain a number of cards that can be switched with cards from your main deck, in order to try and play around certain tactics. But, you can use the sideboard, only once you've played the first game with your opponent, since games are usually Bo3.
Now, how Hearthstone can implement a sideboard, since the games on ladder are singles? Honestly there are a couple of ways, but I believe the best choice would be to use it before mulligan. It should be a small extra deck located next to your deck, once you're deckbuilding and should not contain more than 6 cards. Now 6 cards are not much, but it wouldn't be healthy for the game, if players to manipulate their whole deck, making a completely different deck, but rather 1/5 of it. A player before each match begins, once the Heroes are announced by the Innkeeper, will be able to drag cards from their "Sideboard" if they want to, in the place of cards of their main deck, for this match only. There has to be a timer, certainly and it will be followed by the mulligan.
So here's a poorly-made simulation:
You're making your Old God Druid and everything's fine. Once you complete the 30-card deck, 6 extra slots will appear to the side, labelled as "Sideboard". So you put on those 6 cards, some heal, taunt, armor, or techs like Silence/Secret removal etc. You Q on ladder and you find a Priest. Everything's fine, usually Priests are control decks, you just play the game with your ramping and dropping late game bombs. Next you find a Demon Hunter. When the Innkeeper annoucnes the names, you choose the option "Sideboard", and you switch a couple of ramp cards and maybe an Old God, for more healing and taunt options. Next game, there's a Mage, so you choose sideboard and you put in Secret removal in the place of an Old God. And so on.
Personally I don't think this is a completely necessary addition to the game, but all in all, it would test the skill of the players and would create a whole new area of strategies to discuss and make content about. What do you guys think?
It would be a very interesting addition, although I think 6 cards might be too much (maybe 3 or 4 would be better in terms of balance, timing and interface). I think it would definitely favour control decks a lot more than aggro decks but it would be nice to be able to tech cards in for certain matchups where they hardcounter you. It might make people play more cautiously against decks they would normally be strong against.
Would you have to put all of the sideboard cards in or could you just pick 1 or 2?
They did try something like this in tournaments before with specialist format, but it just created an extremely narrow Rock Paper Scissors meta. Week 1 of the first season of Grandmasters in 2019 was control Warrior mirror matches all week and it was excruciating. While I like the idea of being able to mitigate some of your poor matchups with a side deck, Hearthstone doesn’t feel like the right game for it given how effective the tech cards can be at dismantling entire strategies, which effectively squeezes a lot of decks out of the meta since everyone can just back pocket some hard tech against them.
A card game called Eternal actually has something like this implemented.
Basically when you make a deck you can put 5 cards in your "market". You can't have any copies of those cards in your deck. Then certain cards allow you, when played, to swap any card in your hand with a card from the market.
Arguably this wouldn't really work here since you can only have 30 cards in your deck as opposed to 75-150 and 2 copies, or 1 for legs, instead of 4 all around, but something similar would be interesting.
Well yeah, I guess 6, as the 1/5th as an analogy to MTG's sideboard, which allows 15 cards to a 60 card deck (1/4th in this case, but anyway). It could be 3-4. I don't think aggro would be weakened. Instead they could use the sideboard for Silence, if their opponent is a controlish deck. Or you know, tune the deck to the needs of every match-up. Some low cost AoE against Warlocks etc etc. I think 3-4 cards could work as well.
Pick as many as you like. There should be a timer though. In the future there could also be some synergies that draw cards from the sideboard, but I guess it could lead to a couple of broken combos hehe.
Interesting at the very least. Though, those restrictions may be problematic.
Well, it's not the same actually. And people on tournaments use control decks more often anyway, even without the Specialist format. That doesn't prove their effectiveness. Honestly, how many times were the finals a control-fiesta or a trade-junk carnival? But, you're right that the tech cards in Hearthstone punish people really hard, at least combo players. Aggro is contained, but not so much. Control remains indifferent to most of the tech cards, I may say, but utilizes most of them. However, there is a much bigger problem in my humble opinion, called polarizing. There are decks with polarizing effects. Like the good ol' Crystal Rogue. Playing against an aggro was an instant defeat (95%). playing against control was an instant win (99%).
So, all in all, I believe that the sideboard could mitigate the problem of polarization. But, I do realize that it will create quite often suffocating metas, with heavy techs destroying combo decks.