Hearthpwn

This is just one of "these" cards.

It has decent stat-line and very interesting text, that potentially could even let you build a deck around, but... You won't. You'll either end up having 2-4 discard cards and a low probability of using them when MI is in play, or you'll have to use cards that are actually bad when MI isn't in play.

Though this card is actually good enough to be used in zoo and maybe it will spawn some sort of more aggressive, demon-centered variation of the deck, that runs double Soulfire, double Doomguard, though I don't see that being very likely.

Surely it will see some experimentation. But this card is far from being meta-defining - unless Blizzard reveals two other discard-synergistic high quality cards

Quote from Mecha_Lynx >>

Quote from SeriousSam64 >>

Druid win by Shadowform LMAO!

 Haha yes! I got Shadowform as hunter xD

edit - lol just got it as Warrior :P

Blizzard logic:
Make a blatantly OP card;
People notice;
People complain;
Wait 3 months;
Make a cosmetic nerf leaving the broken mechanic intact;
People notice;
People complain;
Wait 3 months;
Make the card trash-tier;
The End
...
Or is it?

The funny thing is that there is a narrow chance that Patron Warrior will still be competitive (not tier 1 though).

Had Recycle, Coghammer and Mech-Bear-Cat
The deck is terrible. Got my win with this, but I won't go back to this arena just because I don't want to take chances at playing this deck.
It's as if Blizzard wanted to show off cards that most players had forgotten that they exist.

Don't dust, it's one of the best neutral legendaries and unlike many classic cards it's unlikely to loose it's value overtime.

The comment about not playing control isn't a valid one. Top players used to put this even in Face Hunter decks. It's overally OP as long as meta fits it. Any time you're hitting Dragon Priest wall or Druids with Ancients of War it's an auto-include.

First thought - aggro decks are going to be great in this format.

Made a face-hunter, met a smorck-a-din and a fellow face hunter. And I read there's loads of mages cause flamewaker's a thing. I guess ZOO should be pretty good in this too, the aggressive one that is.

Well I played one game, conceded the second after getting a shitty enough opening hand (pure 3-drops) to loose the mirror, got my card pack, that's it for me, I'm off to do something else.

This weeks brawl is basically ladder, only it sucks more cause there's more rng because of the bananas and their quality/relevance.

I guess you could try and make a mill deck. I guess you could fine-tune the aggro with drakes and giants. But, really - why bother? There's no ranking, there are no rewards and most people will be playing the same stuff as in ladder, only with a greater rng factor.

Really, really dissapointed.

***WARNING - here begins the rant why Hearthstone is DOOMED***
Well not doomed, but the thing is that Hearthstone encourages to play aggro. Not because of the time limits, not because aggro is cheaper to craft or it requires less skill. It's because of the tempo of the game, of the deck sizes and deck requirements and your win condition - the life pool, capped at 30. Aggro cards are efficient enough to win games and actually aggro decks are less susceptible to bad draws than control or especially mid-range. Yeah, I know, I'm raising eyebrows now. But it's true, it's more likely to get a good or decent opening hand with an aggro deck, and the thing is that decent is enough to put you at that winning spot, cause there's loads more ways to deal damage and finish off the game than to regain health and stabilize on the board. Moreover it's rare that you draw really, really badly with real aggro (I'm thinking the likes of face hunter or old ZOO). And though combo archetypes eventually beat the aggro archetypes on ladder when the meta cycle draws to a close (old Miracle Rogue, old 0TK Hunter, old 0TK Warrior, old Freeze Mage, combo oriented Face Hunter, Gadgetzan Miracle Rogue, Patron Warrior) when the things get stirred up, aggro is the best way to go. It even works in solo adventures, apart from few select challenges that required specific approach, I've defeated most of the bosses with aggressive Hunter builds that focused on face damage and card cycling, because I didn't care about the opponent's tactic, I cared about my tactic - hitting face and drawing more cards to hit face with. And Hearthstone makes that a valid tactic. And Hearthstone encourages you to try out that tactic. And Hearthstone rewards you for using that tactic in almost every game mode. And in fact I think Hearthstone wants you to play using that tactic. And concerning gameplay experience, that makes me a saaaaad panda.

This week might be the end to the rise of ZOOlock. 4 out of 7 released cards are potent board control cards (warrior, rogue, warlock and mage) and one is an early game heavy-hitter that trades very favourably with basically anything at it's mana tier (shaman card). I'm actually wondering if Warlocks will carry Chromaggus, they have probably the best class synergy with it.

Everybody's making up combos... What's funny that this card is actually pretty strong without combos. This is a perfect fit in a face-warrior deck. There's like close to nothing that deals clean five damage on turn four (fireball and I think that's all). So this card will absorb 5+ damage, deal at least 4 damage to enemy's face and probably kill at least one small minion. That's insane value. You can't ignore it because Warrior can turn this baby into a factory of pain, and against other aggro decks like face Hunter you can use this to clean their low-drops while still putting a clock on the opponent. Against a belcher it pushes 4 damage behind the taunt and 4 damage into the taunt. It's pure aggro gold. And the fact that you can use it as an insane finisher with Bouncing Blades just makes it more fun. If nothing equally insane gets revealed, this card can define the meta.

In arena this is most of the time a top pick, but might bite you back if you're facing a lot of aggro.

 
In constructed it's a card that can either define the meta or be completely excluded from play.

It's extremely good on it's own, but standalone 4-drops for a long time were a rare sight in Hearthstone. Yeti's were always considered very good value yet they rarely saw competitive play. Even the Mechanical Yeti isn't an auto-include in mech-decks. Actually the only stand-alone 4-drop played across many decks is Piloted Shredder and it's feature lies not in the stats but in stickiness and the mech synergy. Other 4-drops are also synergetic like Argus, Twilight Drake, Mountain Giant, Dark Iron, Violet Teacher or Blastmage or they fill in a function in a deck like Sen'jin or Gnomish Inventor.

Actually this card might be extremely bad if aggro is again on top of the meta. Giving your opponent another minion if he's playing zoo or face-hunter might be a terrible play.

In all honesty my original reply was bit to harsh, but I haven't experienced such a crushing loose streak in months, won only 3 games in 15 or more. And in fact the opponents were a bit lucky, and they were mostly running aggro. The thing is, what really made me feel bad, was that the deck made me entirely helpless. I just didn't have any cards that could impact the game, so the opponents luck only provided some flashy finishes to games that were over basically on turn 3. Maybe in a more control-ish environment it does well, but my experience with it is simply terrible. I gave it another shot today and to same effect. The flaw to me is pretty obvious - although there are small and medium cards in the deck, the curve is too slow, as are the cards themselves.

But based on your concept I took what I thought of as flaws and started fiddling with the deck and came up with something like this:

Ok.

Yeah it's working as intended. I think blizzard realised that it would be too hard a punishment for experienced players to have to grind at a low bonus star rate just because they didn't play much for a month or two and so the stars are also linked to your underlying MMR. This is mentioned on a Q&A they recently responded too.

It would also be detrimental to newer players if higher skilled players that were absent from ladder a month or two were stuck in the lower ranks just constantly playing these newer players.

If someone hits legend 10 months in a row then doesn't play a month due to vacation/work/family. It would be crazy to then have them earning only the minimum bonus to get back to where they should be playing

I would rather just play the game thank you

There have definently been stronger Metas. Don't know what you're on about.

Quote from Zangoosed >>

The mode used to be so great and now its just hot garbage RNG ridiculousness fiesta. Sooo much nonsense now...so many Heroes...so many bad decisions...just no. I truly and utterly believe Battlegrounds used to take SKILL. Not anymore. They took their best skilled mode and basically turned it into another RNG fest.

I seriously HATE playing now.

 Then stop playing.

I have this impression now, playing for 5 days and don't be matched vs shaman once, the class just disappears.

Maybe I was the first one to complain about the insanely overpowered deck Galakrond shaman was in the release of DoD, only 3 days after and the ladder was more than 60% shamans, I can say is the worst possible meta, when one class is Tier S and you have to choose lose or play with the broken class, happen something similar in days of midrange shaman.

So, they nerfed the class twice, the first wave are a must but I don't sure about the second one but maybe it is just impossible to do this right.

Shaman always is Tier S invencible or trash tier unplayable, no mid ground?

Paying with real money is actually a very demotivational experience: you open the same common card like 15 times, and then like "really". After opening 120 packs the experience is absolute "Meh" because each pack you open is 90% duplicates which are like trash/trash/40 dust/trash.

They should implement some additional reward/bonus/gamification to make it enjoyable even if you get all dupes.

Quote from dxong >>

Kripparrian's taste on the Tier List in this article, "He flipped it" xD

https://clips.twitch.tv/StrongGracefulEggplantWholeWheat

In all goodness, always good with shared experiences! 

I gotta say having watched Kripp's top 10 before reading this. His explanations sounded much more like someone who has played with and against most of the heroes and knows what strategies work well with them or don't.

The explanations for these placements seem based on some pretty sound reasoning, but without much actual game experience. It feels like watching someone guess the power level of cards in a new set before it's released.