Call to Arms has been performing very well for me. I got 2 in my last paladin run (and declined a third), with only 4 1-2 drops, and ended up 12-2.
I was worried after the draft, but having two simply gave me more chances to draw one early. And I lost only one of the games where I quickly drew both. That card won about a third of the game straight away, and generally always gave me a huge lead.
If you hit stuff with it, it's good. But I get steamrolled by aggro if I miss a two or three drop at the moment - but I'm meant to mull them away for the chance of a strong four drop on curve? That's not hype for a card I can understand, sorry.
I'd never mulligan away my 1-2 drops because I've got a Call to Arms in my hand, though I would keep it in my hand if I had a 1/2 drop. I've not played with it much really, but if you've got 6-8 1/2 drops in your deck then on average it should perform better than it has for you.
Corridor Creeper (1) +1 – Think most people missed this one. We had the card at a (2) which is an above average card, but not only is the 5/5 body for cheap and early, a great tempo play that can win the game right away, the condition to trigger is very reasonable. This card is actually one of the best neutral cards IN THE GAME right now, and has seen success in Constructed play as well.
I called it as the sleeper card of the set and was surprised people had it as anything other than a 1.
I was incredibly wrong on everything else though, so it balanced out.
imo we should have some way to rate draft-dependant cards. While synergy isn't something you'd prioritize in arena I've been blasted way too many times by Duskbreaker to not considering possible synergies.
Well, that isnt exactly easy to do before the release of an expansion. First of all, our scale is relatively strict with just 5 levels (to not complicate things) and also the synergies that we could anticipate might change. What i mean is, the card offering rates might change, which they did, so even tho it could have looked like some classes would have an easier way to get those synergies, it could have easilly not been true.
But i suppose for a dragon priest especially, we all suspected that it would be true and we said as much and we did evaluate cards like Duskbreaker with that in mind, but i can agree that the scores dont rly take the synergy into consideration in the end. Or rather how easy is for a priest to achieve it.
The five score system is quite fine. It's just that some cards heavily relies on other cards and are pretty useless in a vacuum. I agree that it's almost impossible to gauge unless the expansion is released and can still fluctuate between sets or balance changes.
I generally view the rating system as "On average, how highly should you prioritise picking this card?". If a card is useless in a vacuum or dependent on drafts with unlikely synergies then the card should be low rated even if in reality there are times that card will carry a game singlehandedly. Hunter Weapon is a good example because if you did happen to make it work it's one of the best cards in the entire game, the value is absolutely incredible, but on average it's near-useless so that's what its rating reflects.
Most of us in our descriptions add caveats for such cards, I don't see any other way of having a system that reflects drafts, you'd be rating a card 3-4 times each time otherwise to account for different deck combinations.
I think 9 times out of 10 I'd go Skull of the Man'ari over Togwaggle myself, assuming you could draft a decent number of demons after. Weapon removal really isn't that common in Arena.
U will not get enough demons to justify that. And even if u do, most of them will have battlecry u will want to play them for, so ... Skull is a big no go for arena imho.
Plenty of demons without positive battlecries, in fact I'd suggest more demons have negative battlecries over negative ones. It doesn't take that many demons to make Skull playable, whether it's pickable or not very much depends where it occurs in your draft and what you've already drafted.
While i agree that more demons have negative battlecries than not, most of those u wouldnt pick in a first place anyway, so thats kinda beside the point. And i still stand behind the argument, that u will not get enough demons to make the Skull worth it ... pay 5 mana to do nothing the turn u play it, to get a 2/4 taunt or something next turn? Way too slow for my taste. Voidlords or Doomguards r obviously best pulls, but we r not making combo decks in arena (usually) and gettin none or subpar results most of the time is not an argument for me to pick the Skull. I might try it if i get a choice to see how it performs, but i wouldnt hold my breath.
I'm not suggesting for a second that it's a good pick or even an average one, it's certainly a bad card in arena even in a deck full of demons. I'd take it over Togwaggle though if I had any decent number of demons in the deck.
I think 9 times out of 10 I'd go Skull of the Man'ari over Togwaggle myself, assuming you could draft a decent number of demons after. Weapon removal really isn't that common in Arena.
U will not get enough demons to justify that. And even if u do, most of them will have battlecry u will want to play them for, so ... Skull is a big no go for arena imho.
Plenty of demons without positive battlecries, in fact I'd suggest more demons have negative battlecries over negative ones. It doesn't take that many demons to make Skull playable, whether it's pickable or not very much depends where it occurs in your draft and what you've already drafted.
I think 9 times out of 10 I'd go Skull of the Man'ari over Togwaggle myself, assuming you could draft a decent number of demons after. Weapon removal really isn't that common in Arena.
Ah, cool - where're you pulling the data from? Not questioning it, just handy to know the source :) I know everyone else is doing well with Hunter, so it's just me having issues adapting! How much will this drop, though, when people start playing around Crushing Walls more, do you think? Had a few games the other day where it was a dead card in the opp's hand for the crucial turns (though I then played right into it when the pressure came off :P). Maybe paladin feels super strong because you either end up with super-strong decks or you get facerolled, and you'll tend to see the good decks that opponents have? Much like mage has been for the last expansion, tbh.
I don't think Crushing Walls is the power card, I think Candleshot, Flanking Strike and the Spellstone are the big three that have pushed Hunter up to Tier 1 status. Stats are all from https://hsreplay.net/
That's pretty much how the classes are grouped up based on their statistical arena winrates. Hunters have a significant gap ahead of the rest.
Potion of heroism is a nasty, nasty combat trick, too - absurdly strong. I'd rank Pally T1 or T2. Hunters... everyone else is doing well, spellstone is good, but I'm not feeling them, myself. Maybe it's issues adapting to the new meta :)
Well this isn't my opinion so much as the actual statistical winrates over the last few days in arena. Of course you may find different classes play better for you, etc.
She's actually a potential pain in arena, I was playing a fairly slow tempo Priest Deck and I quite simply could not put on the board pressure to stop him channelling out all those spells in the late game. I think she's potentially really good against spell-heavy decks, as mine was.
It's called variance. The Spellstones (I have 3 in my deck) have worked incredibly well for me so far (6-1 in my run at the moment) and have basically carried every single victory. Yeah they'll answer the first one with a big AoE but usually that's a good trade for you regardless and plenty of the Hunter secrets are pretty damn good in arena.
On final card reveal, I mostly agreed with your reviews, I'll just add a few points about few cards.
Astral Tiger - Well, yes, it's playable, but I think the other choices would be more interesting than a vanilla minion with average stats.
Ebon Dragonsmith - I think this card is definitely better than Blackwater Pirate. It's a battlecry instead of continuous effect, so you don't have to protect it or something. 2-mana reduction is quite huge too. It should be at least average in a weapon deck.
Barkskin - Isn't the reason Power Word: Shield is a good card is because the cantrip? Looks like pretty bland card for me.
I agree with you on Barkskin and think it's been overrated, particularly when in the 1's and 2's. Power Word: Shield is good because it cycles itself, Barkskin is essentially a 1 mana 0/3 gain some armour, that's mediocre at best.
On Astral Tiger though, the fact is most epics...kind of suck in arena. That's changed a little with this expansion but across all cards I'd say for a lot of classes Epic is actually the weakest slot.
You don't exactly need an incredible start - if you had 2 drops ranging from 1-3 then you'd absolutely keep it. Obviously that's a solid start but (and especially when you're going second) it's hardly unlikely if you've drafted correctly. Yeah I'd throw it if my mulligan was 3 5 drops etc.
Corridor Creeper is going to be the surprise card of the set, I think it'll surprise a lot of people with just how damn good it is in Arena where minion to minion trades happen on pretty much every single turn. Will not be a rare play at all on Turn 4 which is already good, and any earlier and it's legitimately incredible. Even late game it's a decent stat stick.
Rhok'delar 5 : Obviously a 5 in Arena. 4/2 on Turn 7 just isn't enough and the effect is going to happen in 1 in 100000 decks.
Master Oakheart 3 : I actually think in Arena with such a minion based drafting process, this is pretty likely to grab 3 minions, in which case it is absolutely insane. Hell it's pretty crazy if it grabs 2. Yeah it sucks at the end of the game, but so do a lot of cards.
The Darkness 5 : Awesome card, terrible in Arena, but awesome card.
Astral Tiger 3 : The bounce back doesn't matter in Arena usually, and other than that a 4 mana 3/5 is...okay? Yeti's a 2 star card, making this a 3.
Shimmering Courser 4 : Another card I like a lot, but for constructed not arena really. Has potential in Paladin when played with Spikeridged though.
Corridor Creeper 1 : If this is in your hand for literally 2-3 turns it'll probably cost near 0. I imagine others will rate this lower, but I think it's going to be incredible in Arena in the same way Nerubian Prophet was.
Kobold Barbarian 4 : Stats are good, but the effect is such a downside that...eh. Even if it just said minion rather than enemy I'd rate it a 3 at least.
Ebon Dragonsmith 4 : Below average stats and an effect that will rarely go off.
Gravelsnout Knight 3 : Will usually trade positively into whatever your opponent spawns, but not with much HP left to make it actually worth. Ends up being...okay.
Hooked Reaver 1 : Awesome. Even as a flat 4 mana 4/4 it's...playable if need be, but holding off until sub 15 health is pretty easy as a Warlock. Cheap but viable late game card, 4 MANA 7/7 WITH NO OVERLOAD? Great card.
Scorp-o-matic 2 : In a world dominated by Fire Fly, this is a good card.
Kobold Monk 3 : Decent statline for arena. Effect is pretty useless, but the statline is good enough for a 3 rating.
Shrieking Shroom 3 : Never going to survive more than a turn. If a 1-drop is 1/2 on average then this is a 3 mana 2/4 which is average. It gains a point for the potential to snowball if you can protect it, but loses a point because spreading stats out like that tends to make them weaker.
Dark Pact 3 : Synergising this is much harder in Arena where you're unlikely to build a deck full of eggs etc. and... really the 8 health isn't such a big deal to handle the tempo loss. Still, it lets you tap a little harder.
Flanking Strike 1 : Incredible card, and it's a common! Will make Hunter a whole lot stronger in Arena. Bundling value like this is always, well, valuable.
Sleepy Dragon 3 : Another Mastodon, but I think the Mastodon is better. The 4 attack is going to be less impactful, not worth the health gain.
Cave Hydra 2 : I like it. Coined out it'll take out a 2-drop and a 1-drop (or a Fire Fly + Elemental etc.). Yeah effects like this haven't been good in the past, but at 3 mana it's MUCH more effective.
Cavern Shinyfinder 3 : Super draft dependent, for obvious reasons, but I feel this doesn't really work without the Kingsbane Constructed synergy.
Potion of Heroism 1 : Really strong. Cheap buff card that's viable in the late game as well as the early, and cycles itself? I'll take several please.
Cursed Disciple 5 : Against non-ping classes this actually has decent potential depending on the board state, but it's such a fringe case that it can't be any higher than this.
Fungalmancer 3 : This after Saronite Chain Gang is... amazing. It's generally a 5 mana 6/6 with partial charge that relies on you having a board however, so gets deducted a point.
Kobold Apprentice 4 : I can't get behind statlines like this that require you to highroll.
Candleshot 2 : Being able to ping for an extra 1 in the early game is actually invaluable, but I'm not sure how much the immunity will matter in a non-aggro Arena meta.
Barkskin 3 : Don't care about the armour much, so how good is 1 mana to give a minion 3 health? Well, it's...okay! Just okay. Let's your 2 mana 3/2 trade into something bigger and survive at least.
Healing Rain 2 : I know I hate healing, but this is SO MUCH HEALING. The important thing is this can hit your minions. 12! That's crazy. Hitting multiple targets is actually better than a targeted heal too - yeah you don't want to hit your face but given you're unlikely to be damaged much by say turn 5/6 this could give you some amazing trades. Maybe too optimistic on this one.
Crushing Hand 2 : Basically Flame Lance, which was a pretty good card. Sometimes splitting the mana is good, sometimes it's not.
Dire Mole 3 : 1/3 isn't actually terrible, but it's not exciting either. Still, competes with pretty much every 1-drop out there.
Shifting Scroll 3 : Unsure where to put this. Sitting in your hand unused until it happens to hit upon the one spell you need is kind of a pain and I feel like you'll spend a long time just waiting for something good, Mage actually has a decent number of mediocre spells.
Boisterous Bard 3 : Needs to hit 2 minions to be good value, that's pretty difficult on Turn 3.
Corrosive Sludge 3 : 5 mana 5/5, very rarely a benefit. Average card.
Dragonslayer 3 : 4/3 is pretty badly worse than 3/4 in arena and I don't see the effect going off too often given there really hasn't been many dragons added in this expansion. Goes up in value against Priest.
Fungal Enchanter 2 : Better than Earthern Farseer which I always liked for it's help with your trades. Pretty good little card which will combo well with your discounted early game minions with big health.
Gemstudded Golem 2 : Armour gain is much easier in Warrior than Druid, and the statline is a pretty effective wall that should let you hit it regardless. Probably a 3 in reality, but goes up because Warrior is going to have a lot of armour cards when KaC hits.
Green Jelly 3 : 5 mana 4/5 if it gets killed off on the next turn, which is definitely pretty likely given the health total. Has decent potential if you can protect it at all, but suffers against classes with cheap 3 damage abilities. If you're ahead on the board it gets a lot better, but I dislike win more cards in general.
Plated Beetle 3 : It's a 2 mana 2/3 with a TINY benefit (bigger in Warrior + Druid)
Sewer Crawler 3 : 3 mana 3/4. Sometimes having a 1/1 is bad, sometimes good, who knows, perfectly average card.
Shroom Brewer 3 : The 4 mana version of Earthern Farseer. Not really what you want to play on Turn 4 but it wouldn't be too upsetting if you had to.
Sneaky Devil 2 : A lot of classes will actually struggle to deal the 2 damage necessary to kill this sneaky devil, what's a Druid going to do, Swipe you twice? Rogue? Warrior? Not as good against some others, downright bad potentially against Mage but at least when you play it you may be able to make some positive trades.
Stoneskin Basilisk 2 : Poisonous is good in Arena, simple as that, and this is at the very least going to eat a ping and a cheap minion.
Toothy Chest 3 : How good this is is super dependent on whether you're going first or not and what the board state is. Onto an empty board it's a great card, obviously, but if they're the ones leading the charge then it suffers a lot more. It's a 2 sometimes and a 4 sometimes, ergo, it's a 3! Maffs.
Trogg Gloomeater 2 : I really like Poisonous okay. 5 damage is hard to do on turn 5 for everybody who isn't a Mage and this is likely to trade in for at least 2 minions.
Violet Wurm 1 : 8 mana 14/14! Optimistic but man, I love this card, it's like a little Onyxia. Even having a deathrattle isn't necessarily a bad thing, gives you time to clear out your minions before they take down the beast. Probably a 2 but I don't care I love it and it's a 1, fight me.
I think 9 times out of 10 I'd go Skull of the Man'ari over Togwaggle myself, assuming you could draft a decent number of demons after. Weapon removal really isn't that common in Arena.
Tier 2 : Warlock / Priest
Tier 3 : Paladin
Tier 4 : Mage / Druid / Rogue / Shaman
Tier 5 : Warrior
I just lost to Rin, The First Disciple.
I feel dirty.
She's actually a potential pain in arena, I was playing a fairly slow tempo Priest Deck and I quite simply could not put on the board pressure to stop him channelling out all those spells in the late game. I think she's potentially really good against spell-heavy decks, as mine was.
It's called variance. The Spellstones (I have 3 in my deck) have worked incredibly well for me so far (6-1 in my run at the moment) and have basically carried every single victory. Yeah they'll answer the first one with a big AoE but usually that's a good trade for you regardless and plenty of the Hunter secrets are pretty damn good in arena.
You don't exactly need an incredible start - if you had 2 drops ranging from 1-3 then you'd absolutely keep it. Obviously that's a solid start but (and especially when you're going second) it's hardly unlikely if you've drafted correctly. Yeah I'd throw it if my mulligan was 3 5 drops etc.
Corridor Creeper is going to be the surprise card of the set, I think it'll surprise a lot of people with just how damn good it is in Arena where minion to minion trades happen on pretty much every single turn. Will not be a rare play at all on Turn 4 which is already good, and any earlier and it's legitimately incredible. Even late game it's a decent stat stick.
Right then, many cards, here we go.
Rhok'delar 5 : Obviously a 5 in Arena. 4/2 on Turn 7 just isn't enough and the effect is going to happen in 1 in 100000 decks.
Master Oakheart 3 : I actually think in Arena with such a minion based drafting process, this is pretty likely to grab 3 minions, in which case it is absolutely insane. Hell it's pretty crazy if it grabs 2. Yeah it sucks at the end of the game, but so do a lot of cards.
The Darkness 5 : Awesome card, terrible in Arena, but awesome card.
Astral Tiger 3 : The bounce back doesn't matter in Arena usually, and other than that a 4 mana 3/5 is...okay? Yeti's a 2 star card, making this a 3.
Shimmering Courser 4 : Another card I like a lot, but for constructed not arena really. Has potential in Paladin when played with Spikeridged though.
Corridor Creeper 1 : If this is in your hand for literally 2-3 turns it'll probably cost near 0. I imagine others will rate this lower, but I think it's going to be incredible in Arena in the same way Nerubian Prophet was.
Kobold Barbarian 4 : Stats are good, but the effect is such a downside that...eh. Even if it just said minion rather than enemy I'd rate it a 3 at least.
Ebon Dragonsmith 4 : Below average stats and an effect that will rarely go off.
Gravelsnout Knight 3 : Will usually trade positively into whatever your opponent spawns, but not with much HP left to make it actually worth. Ends up being...okay.
Hooked Reaver 1 : Awesome. Even as a flat 4 mana 4/4 it's...playable if need be, but holding off until sub 15 health is pretty easy as a Warlock. Cheap but viable late game card, 4 MANA 7/7 WITH NO OVERLOAD? Great card.
Scorp-o-matic 2 : In a world dominated by Fire Fly, this is a good card.
Kobold Monk 3 : Decent statline for arena. Effect is pretty useless, but the statline is good enough for a 3 rating.
Shrieking Shroom 3 : Never going to survive more than a turn. If a 1-drop is 1/2 on average then this is a 3 mana 2/4 which is average. It gains a point for the potential to snowball if you can protect it, but loses a point because spreading stats out like that tends to make them weaker.
Dark Pact 3 : Synergising this is much harder in Arena where you're unlikely to build a deck full of eggs etc. and... really the 8 health isn't such a big deal to handle the tempo loss. Still, it lets you tap a little harder.
Flanking Strike 1 : Incredible card, and it's a common! Will make Hunter a whole lot stronger in Arena. Bundling value like this is always, well, valuable.
Sleepy Dragon 3 : Another Mastodon, but I think the Mastodon is better. The 4 attack is going to be less impactful, not worth the health gain.
Cave Hydra 2 : I like it. Coined out it'll take out a 2-drop and a 1-drop (or a Fire Fly + Elemental etc.). Yeah effects like this haven't been good in the past, but at 3 mana it's MUCH more effective.
Cavern Shinyfinder 3 : Super draft dependent, for obvious reasons, but I feel this doesn't really work without the Kingsbane Constructed synergy.
Potion of Heroism 1 : Really strong. Cheap buff card that's viable in the late game as well as the early, and cycles itself? I'll take several please.
Psionic Probe 4 : Like Babbling Book, but worse.
Cursed Disciple 5 : Against non-ping classes this actually has decent potential depending on the board state, but it's such a fringe case that it can't be any higher than this.
Fungalmancer 3 : This after Saronite Chain Gang is... amazing. It's generally a 5 mana 6/6 with partial charge that relies on you having a board however, so gets deducted a point.
Kobold Apprentice 4 : I can't get behind statlines like this that require you to highroll.
Candleshot 2 : Being able to ping for an extra 1 in the early game is actually invaluable, but I'm not sure how much the immunity will matter in a non-aggro Arena meta.
Barkskin 3 : Don't care about the armour much, so how good is 1 mana to give a minion 3 health? Well, it's...okay! Just okay. Let's your 2 mana 3/2 trade into something bigger and survive at least.
Healing Rain 2 : I know I hate healing, but this is SO MUCH HEALING. The important thing is this can hit your minions. 12! That's crazy. Hitting multiple targets is actually better than a targeted heal too - yeah you don't want to hit your face but given you're unlikely to be damaged much by say turn 5/6 this could give you some amazing trades. Maybe too optimistic on this one.
Crushing Hand 2 : Basically Flame Lance, which was a pretty good card. Sometimes splitting the mana is good, sometimes it's not.
Dire Mole 3 : 1/3 isn't actually terrible, but it's not exciting either. Still, competes with pretty much every 1-drop out there.
Shifting Scroll 3 : Unsure where to put this. Sitting in your hand unused until it happens to hit upon the one spell you need is kind of a pain and I feel like you'll spend a long time just waiting for something good, Mage actually has a decent number of mediocre spells.
Boisterous Bard 3 : Needs to hit 2 minions to be good value, that's pretty difficult on Turn 3.
Corrosive Sludge 3 : 5 mana 5/5, very rarely a benefit. Average card.
Dragonslayer 3 : 4/3 is pretty badly worse than 3/4 in arena and I don't see the effect going off too often given there really hasn't been many dragons added in this expansion. Goes up in value against Priest.
Fungal Enchanter 2 : Better than Earthern Farseer which I always liked for it's help with your trades. Pretty good little card which will combo well with your discounted early game minions with big health.
Gemstudded Golem 2 : Armour gain is much easier in Warrior than Druid, and the statline is a pretty effective wall that should let you hit it regardless. Probably a 3 in reality, but goes up because Warrior is going to have a lot of armour cards when KaC hits.
Gilded Gargoyle 4 : It's sort of a 2 mana 2/2. Which sucks.
Green Jelly 3 : 5 mana 4/5 if it gets killed off on the next turn, which is definitely pretty likely given the health total. Has decent potential if you can protect it at all, but suffers against classes with cheap 3 damage abilities. If you're ahead on the board it gets a lot better, but I dislike win more cards in general.
Plated Beetle 3 : It's a 2 mana 2/3 with a TINY benefit (bigger in Warrior + Druid)
Sewer Crawler 3 : 3 mana 3/4. Sometimes having a 1/1 is bad, sometimes good, who knows, perfectly average card.
Shroom Brewer 3 : The 4 mana version of Earthern Farseer. Not really what you want to play on Turn 4 but it wouldn't be too upsetting if you had to.
Sneaky Devil 2 : A lot of classes will actually struggle to deal the 2 damage necessary to kill this sneaky devil, what's a Druid going to do, Swipe you twice? Rogue? Warrior? Not as good against some others, downright bad potentially against Mage but at least when you play it you may be able to make some positive trades.
Stoneskin Basilisk 2 : Poisonous is good in Arena, simple as that, and this is at the very least going to eat a ping and a cheap minion.
Toothy Chest 3 : How good this is is super dependent on whether you're going first or not and what the board state is. Onto an empty board it's a great card, obviously, but if they're the ones leading the charge then it suffers a lot more. It's a 2 sometimes and a 4 sometimes, ergo, it's a 3! Maffs.
Trogg Gloomeater 2 : I really like Poisonous okay. 5 damage is hard to do on turn 5 for everybody who isn't a Mage and this is likely to trade in for at least 2 minions.
Violet Wurm 1 : 8 mana 14/14! Optimistic but man, I love this card, it's like a little Onyxia. Even having a deathrattle isn't necessarily a bad thing, gives you time to clear out your minions before they take down the beast. Probably a 2 but I don't care I love it and it's a 1, fight me.
Wax Elemental 5 : I however, do not love this.