They seem like they need a buff. 4 health might have been better. Or make them be dormant for a turn (fits the idea of them having to travel to the battle) and then have their effect proc at the same time as they break out of dormant. Or in that case maybe they would proc at end of turn.
I love the idea of them. They each do something that fits their class. Thematic stuff like that is fun.
The effect should definitely be at the end of turn and the caravans be 1/1.
as 1/3 start of turn, they are trash cards imo. They are barely playable on curve, and abolutely abyssmal off curve. They could also be dormant like you said, or stealthed like the rastakhan shrines.
Every expansion has trash cards but these really stand out because they're so interesting and thematic for each class. I hope either somehow we're wrong or they fix them because I have a feeling a lot of people in the community want to be playing exactly this kind of card, one that crosses classes but does something fitting and thematic for each particular class.
I guess, there will be neutral epic/legendary card supporting caravans in upcoming mini-set. Maybe they are just trying how good (bad) caravans are naked and after month or two we get that 1-mana Drunken Coachman - your caravans trigger every turn or whatever.
I was going to make a thread about this, but it looks like there already is one...
Do you think they would ever buff these? Because these cards are really interesting, fits the theme of the expansion and could be a lot of fun. They obviously put a lot of thought into these, giving various classes access to them, so why not make them playable?
Realistically, like others have mentioned, they need 1 more health, or be 1 mana 1/3. Or even a 0/4 or something, because the caravan won't fight you. But then again... doesn't make a lot of sense that the watch towers have attack values either. But that's another discussion...
On a somewhat related note, I really like the priest one. Soothsayer's Caravan. It helps push the "spell priest" archetype and further supports some of the other cards they got this expansion, like Power Word: Fortitude and Void Flayer.
I had a game earlier against a lunacy mage, where I dropped a Soothsayer's Caravan on turn 2, to which they promptly played Deck of Lunacy. Knowing (or not knowing?) full well what the minion on my board does... it led to a very interesting game. I ended up losing, because of a Solarian Prime, of all things... but I digress.
Iksar at least gave lip service to buffs maybe coming after the nerfs. (Not to anything specific.) It's safe to say none of the caravans have been seeing much play. It could change a bit after the nerfs but highly unlikely. They may even work better than people give them credit for but they just appear to be so fragile people won't even try.
Caravans are honestly one of the coolest ideas I've seen yet in Hearthstone. A cheap minion that has an ongoing start of turn effect that varies depending on the class. Each one feels so thematic for their class. It's the kind of thing I want more of. It adds really nice flavor and theme to the game and it's just a cool mechanic. I really hope they'll push the caravans so that they get experimented with more at least.
It's unlikely they'll adjust the mana cost. That might make them too powerful on turn 1. Not sure.
Changing their effect to proc at end of turn seems unlikely as well. That could be OP but maybe not. They're so easy to remove that even then they often would only proc the one time.
The most likely change is to bump their health to 4. That puts them out of range of a lot of early removal and trading. Still likely to only proc once but that's better than zero.
Wouldbe pretty funny if they bumped them to 4 health, then everyone gets annoyed because they're too strong on 4 health (especially the paladin and shaman ones) and they get nerfed again.
compare this with the 2 mana tower.. what a difference.
the tower has guaranteed impact (1 mana disruption for the next draw of opponent) and much better stats so hard to remove it. so why anyone will prefer the caravan over the tower?
I have put the Paladin one in a Dude Paladin deck and it was an even more underperforming card in a deck that's already underperforming. Not that I really expected something else, but it was depressing still. Such interesting cards, but completely unplayable as they are way too slow. And the comparison to other 2-drops like Sword of the Fallen or Far Watch Post makes you even more sad.
What we need is a neutral 1 mana 1/1 with Battlecry: Draw a caravan from your deck and trigger its effect immediately (or give it +2 health). I doubt that even that would be extremely strong.
I think the idea of these cards is that they work best when you play them early to get the snowbally effect AND you have some way to protect them. Unfortunately this is not great for Prospector's Caravan as that requires you to have many minions in hand to maximise the effect - Conditioning is a straight up better effect.
The only one I've managed to make work in a deck is Soldier's Caravan in a deck which uses Air Raid to protect it early on.
I've really tried with Apothecary's Caravan but there are a lack of 1 drops in standard to make the card worth running. There is some synergy if you play it after Deck of Chaos to draw out some cards like Ruststeed Raider or Burning Blade Acolyte but again it's way too situational.
I think this kind of cards is very hard to balance. Now they suck, because it's pretty hard to make them stay on board long enough, to utilize them at least once. Though it's not too difficult to imagine what would have happened if they were more sticky (at least some of them). I believe that making them battlecry and 1 mana (Shaman and Prieest) or 2 mana (Warlock, Paladin, Hunter) would be the best solution.
Eh, they're not that bad. I think the value ones are a little too low impact, but basically they're a way to expand your board lead. I think the design is fine, but the game is too removal-heavy for them to see play.
0/4 or 0/5 statline would make much more sense flavor wise... they are caravans, they don't attack. And also coming out early will almost always guarantee they trigger at least once, while coming out late, through a battlefield, makes them very vulnerable to damage. I don't know what they were thinking... this effect has been tried and tested before, and it always sucked.
They seem like they need a buff. 4 health might have been better. Or make them be dormant for a turn (fits the idea of them having to travel to the battle) and then have their effect proc at the same time as they break out of dormant. Or in that case maybe they would proc at end of turn.
I love the idea of them. They each do something that fits their class. Thematic stuff like that is fun.
The effect should definitely be at the end of turn and the caravans be 1/1.
as 1/3 start of turn, they are trash cards imo. They are barely playable on curve, and abolutely abyssmal off curve. They could also be dormant like you said, or stealthed like the rastakhan shrines.
I agree. 4 health really should've been what they went with. A 2 mana 1/3 won't stick, it'll literally never go off.
Avsolutely unplayable, all of them. I hope Blizzard admits the mistake and makes it end of your turn or at last +1hp
Every expansion has trash cards but these really stand out because they're so interesting and thematic for each class. I hope either somehow we're wrong or they fix them because I have a feeling a lot of people in the community want to be playing exactly this kind of card, one that crosses classes but does something fitting and thematic for each particular class.
I think they should have been 0/4 just like pagle and cho. They'll see about as much play as them either way.
Too Slow
I guess, there will be neutral epic/legendary card supporting caravans in upcoming mini-set. Maybe they are just trying how good (bad) caravans are naked and after month or two we get that 1-mana Drunken Coachman - your caravans trigger every turn or whatever.
Mimsy Were The Borogoves
Should have made them like the towers. Harder to kill and can't attack. And proc at end of turn.
I was going to make a thread about this, but it looks like there already is one...
Do you think they would ever buff these? Because these cards are really interesting, fits the theme of the expansion and could be a lot of fun. They obviously put a lot of thought into these, giving various classes access to them, so why not make them playable?
Realistically, like others have mentioned, they need 1 more health, or be 1 mana 1/3. Or even a 0/4 or something, because the caravan won't fight you. But then again... doesn't make a lot of sense that the watch towers have attack values either. But that's another discussion...
On a somewhat related note, I really like the priest one. Soothsayer's Caravan. It helps push the "spell priest" archetype and further supports some of the other cards they got this expansion, like Power Word: Fortitude and Void Flayer.
I had a game earlier against a lunacy mage, where I dropped a Soothsayer's Caravan on turn 2, to which they promptly played Deck of Lunacy. Knowing (or not knowing?) full well what the minion on my board does... it led to a very interesting game. I ended up losing, because of a Solarian Prime, of all things... but I digress.
It was still fun. So, #buffcaravans?
Iksar at least gave lip service to buffs maybe coming after the nerfs. (Not to anything specific.) It's safe to say none of the caravans have been seeing much play. It could change a bit after the nerfs but highly unlikely. They may even work better than people give them credit for but they just appear to be so fragile people won't even try.
Caravans are honestly one of the coolest ideas I've seen yet in Hearthstone. A cheap minion that has an ongoing start of turn effect that varies depending on the class. Each one feels so thematic for their class. It's the kind of thing I want more of. It adds really nice flavor and theme to the game and it's just a cool mechanic. I really hope they'll push the caravans so that they get experimented with more at least.
It's unlikely they'll adjust the mana cost. That might make them too powerful on turn 1. Not sure.
Changing their effect to proc at end of turn seems unlikely as well. That could be OP but maybe not. They're so easy to remove that even then they often would only proc the one time.
The most likely change is to bump their health to 4. That puts them out of range of a lot of early removal and trading. Still likely to only proc once but that's better than zero.
Wouldbe pretty funny if they bumped them to 4 health, then everyone gets annoyed because they're too strong on 4 health (especially the paladin and shaman ones) and they get nerfed again.
compare this with the 2 mana tower.. what a difference.
the tower has guaranteed impact (1 mana disruption for the next draw of opponent) and much better stats so hard to remove it.
so why anyone will prefer the caravan over the tower?
I have put the Paladin one in a Dude Paladin deck and it was an even more underperforming card in a deck that's already underperforming. Not that I really expected something else, but it was depressing still. Such interesting cards, but completely unplayable as they are way too slow. And the comparison to other 2-drops like Sword of the Fallen or Far Watch Post makes you even more sad.
What we need is a neutral 1 mana 1/1 with Battlecry: Draw a caravan from your deck and trigger its effect immediately (or give it +2 health). I doubt that even that would be extremely strong.
Ceterum censeo classum magi esse delendam.
I think the idea of these cards is that they work best when you play them early to get the snowbally effect AND you have some way to protect them. Unfortunately this is not great for Prospector's Caravan as that requires you to have many minions in hand to maximise the effect - Conditioning is a straight up better effect.
The only one I've managed to make work in a deck is Soldier's Caravan in a deck which uses Air Raid to protect it early on.
I've really tried with Apothecary's Caravan but there are a lack of 1 drops in standard to make the card worth running. There is some synergy if you play it after Deck of Chaos to draw out some cards like Ruststeed Raider or Burning Blade Acolyte but again it's way too situational.
I think this kind of cards is very hard to balance. Now they suck, because it's pretty hard to make them stay on board long enough, to utilize them at least once. Though it's not too difficult to imagine what would have happened if they were more sticky (at least some of them). I believe that making them battlecry and 1 mana (Shaman and Prieest) or 2 mana (Warlock, Paladin, Hunter) would be the best solution.
My theory is that the first version of caravans was "end of turn" and this was too good in testing.
Eh, they're not that bad. I think the value ones are a little too low impact, but basically they're a way to expand your board lead. I think the design is fine, but the game is too removal-heavy for them to see play.
0/4 or 0/5 statline would make much more sense flavor wise... they are caravans, they don't attack. And also coming out early will almost always guarantee they trigger at least once, while coming out late, through a battlefield, makes them very vulnerable to damage. I don't know what they were thinking... this effect has been tried and tested before, and it always sucked.
Soothsayer's Caravan is so hilarious against druid, you buff it and it never dies, and you win with all the opponent's spells.
I think all caravans are meant to be druid-hate cards actually, because it's the only class that cannot deal with them.