After playing over 100 games of switcheroo priest and maintaining a positive winrate with consistent turn 3-4 12-12 murlocs in standard, it got me wondering, is consistency an issue right now or is it something a card game should strive for?
Switcheroo priest is just an example, over the past expansions a lot of consistency based keywords have been added like Tradeable and Dredge, not to mention the amount of cheap cards with targeted draw like Switcheroo, Conch's Call, Seafloor Gateway, Knight of Anointment and Treasure Guard just to name a few. So its never been easier to find that Wildheart Guff on turn 5 or Mr. Smite on 6...
Card draw has never been more accessible which leads to very aggressive and fast paced games I feel, every class seems to have targeted draw of some form, I remember the times where the most card draw you had in your deck was two Loot Hoarders and a Bloodmage Thalnos, that's it...
And of course Dredge contributes to that consistency by finding cards at the very bottom of your deck which is something you were never able to do before and otherwise had nothing you could do if a combo piece or an important card was stuck at the bottom of your deck, closest thing to that we had recently was probably Lorekeeper Polkelt or Sphere of Sapience, what are your thoughts on this?
yes you're dead on about the current state of absurd consistency. but at the same time it feels good to play and bad to play against.. so idk how much of an actual problem it is? but certain decks definitely abuse the aspect a lot harder, like druid, switcheroo like you said, or any drek'thar deck
Well, it depends. I don't think any extreme is good, too consistent decks tend to make the game stale and predictable, while too random decks end up as dice rolls.
Card draw is definitely too high at the moment, at least in a lot of classes that are not making any kind of tradeoff. That's not just because cards that draw are way stronger than they used to be (and hence not much of a tempo loss), but also because fatigue is no longer something anyone cares about. Aggro decks no longer fizzle out around turn 5-6 and can instead draw through their entire deck by turn 10 to try and find lethal, while control decks don't care at all about fatigue since they always have an OTK or Kazakusan. This really kills variety and makes games feel more alike and less memorable, which is a problem.
I think a class with a good amount of draw at the moment is Paladin. They have a few cycle cards but that's it, and if they want more they have to pay a price by running something like Acolyte of Pain that's both low tempo and tricky to get value from. On the other hand we have Priests that can draw 3 cards for 3 mana and get a 3/2, as a class that supposedly has card draw as a main weakness according to Blizzard.
Tutors are in my opinion appropriately strong in most classes, with the only big offender being Druid because of how many they have and how strong they are. A few tutors are fine and can create interesting decisions, but too many (and especially crazy powerful ones like Aquatic Form) make the early-game way too consistent.
lol that's just typical to find on every post on this site tbh, almost every post aiming for discussion has its first comment be a one line useless quip that adds nothing to the discussion
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After playing over 100 games of switcheroo priest and maintaining a positive winrate with consistent turn 3-4 12-12 murlocs in standard, it got me wondering, is consistency an issue right now or is it something a card game should strive for?
Switcheroo priest is just an example, over the past expansions a lot of consistency based keywords have been added like Tradeable and Dredge, not to mention the amount of cheap cards with targeted draw like Switcheroo, Conch's Call, Seafloor Gateway, Knight of Anointment and Treasure Guard just to name a few. So its never been easier to find that Wildheart Guff on turn 5 or Mr. Smite on 6...
Card draw has never been more accessible which leads to very aggressive and fast paced games I feel, every class seems to have targeted draw of some form, I remember the times where the most card draw you had in your deck was two Loot Hoarders and a Bloodmage Thalnos, that's it...
And of course Dredge contributes to that consistency by finding cards at the very bottom of your deck which is something you were never able to do before and otherwise had nothing you could do if a combo piece or an important card was stuck at the bottom of your deck, closest thing to that we had recently was probably Lorekeeper Polkelt or Sphere of Sapience, what are your thoughts on this?
Just stop playing Standard.
I love you Dreadsteed, I will never disenchant you!
ignore this animal ("TheDarksider" ^)
yes you're dead on about the current state of absurd consistency. but at the same time it feels good to play and bad to play against.. so idk how much of an actual problem it is? but certain decks definitely abuse the aspect a lot harder, like druid, switcheroo like you said, or any drek'thar deck
Imagine being this constructive.
Well, it depends. I don't think any extreme is good, too consistent decks tend to make the game stale and predictable, while too random decks end up as dice rolls.
Card draw is definitely too high at the moment, at least in a lot of classes that are not making any kind of tradeoff. That's not just because cards that draw are way stronger than they used to be (and hence not much of a tempo loss), but also because fatigue is no longer something anyone cares about. Aggro decks no longer fizzle out around turn 5-6 and can instead draw through their entire deck by turn 10 to try and find lethal, while control decks don't care at all about fatigue since they always have an OTK or Kazakusan. This really kills variety and makes games feel more alike and less memorable, which is a problem.
I think a class with a good amount of draw at the moment is Paladin. They have a few cycle cards but that's it, and if they want more they have to pay a price by running something like Acolyte of Pain that's both low tempo and tricky to get value from. On the other hand we have Priests that can draw 3 cards for 3 mana and get a 3/2, as a class that supposedly has card draw as a main weakness according to Blizzard.
Tutors are in my opinion appropriately strong in most classes, with the only big offender being Druid because of how many they have and how strong they are. A few tutors are fine and can create interesting decisions, but too many (and especially crazy powerful ones like Aquatic Form) make the early-game way too consistent.
lol that's just typical to find on every post on this site tbh, almost every post aiming for discussion has its first comment be a one line useless quip that adds nothing to the discussion