The definition people are using is wrong. There is a reason things have definitions. Linguini is like spaghetti, but it’s incorrect to call linguini spaghetti. Mana cheating has been a concept in TCGs before hearthstone ever existed. It is playing a card for little or no cost before you could pay for it. It’s playing SotF for free six turns early. It’s using elvish piper to play an eldrazi turn 5.
As for GA, 14 mana (best case scenario) for 7 is extremely valuable and a bit overpowered. It’s not mana cheating. Playing it for free on turn 4-5 is. Also, you know what really screws up that strategy? Making them draw one cost beasts. Now if only there was a card that would put two 1/1 beasts in the opponent’s deck...
By that definition any card played using innervate/lightning bloom was mana cheated, doesnt have to cost 0.. Commencement pays 7 mana to play a more expensive minion + taunt/DS + 01 card draw, it only discounts around 6 mana but its certainly mana cheating. Its not something cut and dry, theres room for interpretation here I think.
I dont think anyone would be complaining about GA if Albatross was a good tech option bro, just saying LOL
It’s cut and dried. When posters say “it’s a form of mana cheating” and ramp is mana cheating, it’s wrong and it makes them look butthurt for losing to a deck because they can’t counter it. Commencement isn’t mana cheating, it’s value. It doesn’t always summon more expensive minions, it summons random minions, so to ensure your example works you are playing a deck without any minions under seven cost. Otherwise you are just rolling the dice which is definitely not mana cheating... it’s not even cards...
Loling at albatross tech will bite you in a week. Control decks take time to be refined because they need the other top decks to settle first. Pure paladin, all highlander decks and druid get hurt by albatross. Priest will be the top control deck because silence and hard removal are extremely valuable in this expansion. Have you ever played a priest deck after they summon their fourth or fifth albatross? Just wait and see, albatross will be a solid tech card against druid and paladin.
Right now, SotF druid is the first deck that works well. It is rock and rock hits you in the face and hurts. Mozaki OTK mage is a really good scissor, but it still loses to rock. Priest, warrior and maybe handlock will make a good paper and the meta will be mostly balanced. Control decks take longer to figure out than aggro decks or decks where the “trick” is to use kael to play a 10-cost card for free. Hardly anyone is running silence, minion stealing or albatrosses. Give it a week and druid will drop because giant buffed minions will be a liability for Cabal Acolyte and Wave of Apathy.
The definition people are using is wrong. There is a reason things have definitions. Linguini is like spaghetti, but it’s incorrect to call linguini spaghetti. Mana cheating has been a concept in TCGs before hearthstone ever existed. It is playing a card for little or no cost before you could pay for it. It’s playing SotF for free six turns early. It’s using elvish piper to play an eldrazi turn 5.
As for GA, 14 mana (best case scenario) for 7 is extremely valuable and a bit overpowered. It’s not mana cheating. Playing it for free on turn 4-5 is. Also, you know what really screws up that strategy? Making them draw one cost beasts. Now if only there was a card that would put two 1/1 beasts in the opponent’s deck...
Posters here are using mana cheating wrong. Ramp is not mana cheating, it is playing a 4 cost do nothing so you can play bigger cards sooner. All classes do not cheat mana. What you are describing with cards like Guardian Animals is not mana cheating it is value. You play a card for 7 mana to draw and play 2 cards 5 or less. You may get more than 7 in stats, you may not, but it is not mana cheating. It is a powerful card with high value.
There is one culprit that is mana cheating and it is completely unnecessary. Kael'thas Sunstrider is a prime example of mana cheating as you are playing a card for free, way earlier than you could afford it, even with ramping. The whole deck centers around playing Survival of the Fittest before your opponent has an answer to the 10 cost spell before you cheat it out for zero mana. This is the same problem with other mana cheating that HS has had in the past, such as big priest with Barnes and yshaarj or skull of the manari.
This expansion also saw a huge amount of overpowered cards in terms of value too, hence the paladin builds. My only suggestion is to think about what counters these strategies and build decks around them. I homebrewed a priest deck with an obscene amount of silence and targeted removal and I can run paladins and druids into the ground. Spell damage mage wrecks me, but I encounter them every fifth match at most. That’s the nature of HS, it’s not playing the best decks, the real game is predicting what decks you will face most often and playing a deck that beats them.
It’s cut and dried. When posters say “it’s a form of mana cheating” and ramp is mana cheating, it’s wrong and it makes them look butthurt for losing to a deck because they can’t counter it. Commencement isn’t mana cheating, it’s value. It doesn’t always summon more expensive minions, it summons random minions, so to ensure your example works you are playing a deck without any minions under seven cost. Otherwise you are just rolling the dice which is definitely not mana cheating... it’s not even cards...
Loling at albatross tech will bite you in a week. Control decks take time to be refined because they need the other top decks to settle first. Pure paladin, all highlander decks and druid get hurt by albatross. Priest will be the top control deck because silence and hard removal are extremely valuable in this expansion. Have you ever played a priest deck after they summon their fourth or fifth albatross? Just wait and see, albatross will be a solid tech card against druid and paladin.
Right now, SotF druid is the first deck that works well. It is rock and rock hits you in the face and hurts. Mozaki OTK mage is a really good scissor, but it still loses to rock. Priest, warrior and maybe handlock will make a good paper and the meta will be mostly balanced. Control decks take longer to figure out than aggro decks or decks where the “trick” is to use kael to play a 10-cost card for free. Hardly anyone is running silence, minion stealing or albatrosses. Give it a week and druid will drop because giant buffed minions will be a liability for Cabal Acolyte and Wave of Apathy.
The definition people are using is wrong. There is a reason things have definitions. Linguini is like spaghetti, but it’s incorrect to call linguini spaghetti. Mana cheating has been a concept in TCGs before hearthstone ever existed. It is playing a card for little or no cost before you could pay for it. It’s playing SotF for free six turns early. It’s using elvish piper to play an eldrazi turn 5.
As for GA, 14 mana (best case scenario) for 7 is extremely valuable and a bit overpowered. It’s not mana cheating. Playing it for free on turn 4-5 is. Also, you know what really screws up that strategy? Making them draw one cost beasts. Now if only there was a card that would put two 1/1 beasts in the opponent’s deck...
Posters here are using mana cheating wrong. Ramp is not mana cheating, it is playing a 4 cost do nothing so you can play bigger cards sooner. All classes do not cheat mana. What you are describing with cards like Guardian Animals is not mana cheating it is value. You play a card for 7 mana to draw and play 2 cards 5 or less. You may get more than 7 in stats, you may not, but it is not mana cheating. It is a powerful card with high value.
There is one culprit that is mana cheating and it is completely unnecessary. Kael'thas Sunstrider is a prime example of mana cheating as you are playing a card for free, way earlier than you could afford it, even with ramping. The whole deck centers around playing Survival of the Fittest before your opponent has an answer to the 10 cost spell before you cheat it out for zero mana. This is the same problem with other mana cheating that HS has had in the past, such as big priest with Barnes and yshaarj or skull of the manari.
This expansion also saw a huge amount of overpowered cards in terms of value too, hence the paladin builds. My only suggestion is to think about what counters these strategies and build decks around them. I homebrewed a priest deck with an obscene amount of silence and targeted removal and I can run paladins and druids into the ground. Spell damage mage wrecks me, but I encounter them every fifth match at most. That’s the nature of HS, it’s not playing the best decks, the real game is predicting what decks you will face most often and playing a deck that beats them.