Hearthpwn

Really good patch overall, lots of positive changes with the packs being given out and bug fixes and upcoming events.. My only criticism is that new players have to unlock casual mode I understand to some degree why that decision was made, since casual mode really isn't that casual/new-player friendly most of the time, but that highlights a problem with the casual format more than new players having the ability to choose that game mode. I would feel fairly confused if as a new player I entered a game and ranked mode was available, but casual mode was locked. This is extremely counter intuitive.

I think its a legacy thing. Back in big druid's debut It wasn't so heavily taunt focused as to call the deck Taunt druid. As well as the fact that there weren't any significant taunt synergies like Hadronox. But now that there are, people generally call the deck taunt druid as opposed to big. But yes they basically are the same archetype with the same goal of survive and play huge things that your opponent cant deal with.

Sekiro ;)

yeah, not a bug.

Quote from Alphalegend91 >>

It would probably be extremely difficult to balance a neutral deathknight as there would probably be a class or two where there would be some broken combo. That or they would have to make it so underwhelming that it would defeat the purpose of making one and wouldn't feel special.

 This. Its terrible for class identity if they make it any good at all. they almost have to make it bad or so niche that its not in every deck, and if you're making something so niche its basically going to be a class card anyways, like how Hench-Clan Thug is neutral, but nobody but rogue uses it and nobody but rogue will ever use it.

For Wild there's Myra's Unstable Element, Dump your hand, Play Mecha'thun + Counterfeit Coin + Counterfeit Coin into Preparation Assassinate 

RIP plan, Assasinate targets enemy only.

But then they have Mecha'thun in their hand, and still have to play it and kill it off. 

I for one, welcome our new Robot overlords.

But My god, what a card. Insane possibilities with the new rogue legendary. This is frightening, to say the least.

I like Kripp, but Bandit is right for the most part. He really wont create much hype as he's just not really that kind of guy. I don't think Day9 should really be doing it either though, since as many have pointed out, he really doesn't play a ton of HS anymore. There are plenty of other popular HS streamers that they could and should pick from. Savjz? Thjis, Trump, Noxious, hell even toast. I don't even watch/like all those guys but I'd rather see somebody more connected to the meta and game up there giving some analysis on the cards as they're revealed. 

They give dust refunds for nerfs and changes that affect gameplay. SO while the animation change wouldn't warrant a dust refund, the fact that they're capping the battlecries at 20 should mean they are giving a dust refund.

I don't think buying decks is the way to go, it will make too much salt. I think a cool way to give new players access to more cards is to make some of the deck recipes available to play for free and then rotating which decks every week.

I agree.

The card pool is just too small. You can basically expect every Paladin to have at least 1 copy of each Spikeridged Steed and Vinecleaver (which both are OP as fuck), and you even have to expect justa-as-OP-epics such as Meteor, Glyph, Vilespine Slayer and Primordial Drake.

With those card in the pool the power level is just too varying, and decks end up being more likely to either be extremely good or extremely bad. In wild, those extremes were much more rare, and arena was better balanced. Also, smart plays could make up for worse decks better, as you could often win with a worse deck. Today, you get crushed by worse players with decks that compensate for their misplays much more frequently.

Well true, sometimes you're on the OP end itself. Still, with less variance in power levels the games were more thrilling and it simply feels much better to win in a close game than completely steamrolling your opponent, and smart plays actually are rewarded. This is much less prevalent in Standard arena, sadly.

I really hate the design of Hagatha and Witch's Apprentice, just as I wholeheartedly loathe Babbling Book and Swashburglar and all these other high variance diceroll cards, where you get 1 out of 20+ possible outcomes, and if it's the right one, you win on the spot.

Truth be told, Shaman spells are generally worse than Mage or even Priest spells, and some of the better ones are just about to rotate out, but this is the laziest design they could have come up with. It's just random. There is nothing in terms of "class identity" when it's exactly the same mechanic with a different card pool. It might be fun to play with, but it's not fun at all to play against, best example was the legendary World Championship won by Paveling Book.

The other cards are... ok. I am a bit concerned about Rebuke helping all sorts of Aggro Paladin a bit too much, but it's a nice variation of Loatheb.

Cavern Dreamer is just absolute madness. Get this guy out on turn 2 or turn 1+coin and the other play has no immediate answer for it, well then the game is just over. 

Edit: To give this statement some proof, this guy just conceded to me on turn 3. 

Quote from Schattenlord92 >>

Quote from iandakar >>

Quote from Schattenlord92 >>

Quote from Horkinger >>

Quote from Aneng >>

Statistically if you roll a six sided die 10,000 times there is still, even if infantessimally small, a chance a six never comes up. My disagreement is with the idea of a 'catch up mechanic' in game, not just the statistical Anomoly. 

Again, you mix up statistics (analysing data) with stochastic (calculating probabilities). Because this chance is so small, that it will never happen in reality and, thus, statistically the 6 will show up about 1700 times. The pure theoretical possibility that you can calculate a probability of a 6 not showing up during 10.000 dice rolls in a row (which is stochastic) doesn't make it happen in reality.

And your disagreement with a "catch up mechanic" in game is just a mere and unsupported feeling while ignoring the statistical support of the 40 pack pity timer theory. If there were no pity timer and everything would be truly random, statistics should (and would) show that roughly every 10th pack opening of 40 packs in a row would not contain a legendary. 

 Oh of course it would happen in reality. We just don't have enough time to make it happen. If you really think it would not happen in reality. There are things that are more improbable and they happen every day.

To keep the 10.000 samplesize let me make another example:

10.000 couples are having a baby. The probability of a specific sperm to make it to the ovum during the fertilization is way smaller than 5/6(probability of not rolling a 6). And somehow 10.000 specific sperm cells managed to make it ;)

 That's mishandling of statistics.

The probability of ONE SPECIFIC sperm cell reaching the egg is horribly small, yes.  However, what you are actually calculating is the chance of ANY ONE sperm cell to reach the baby

 

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 No actually, no. What happend is that 10.000 specific sperm cells reached the egg. And this result is really improbable, yet it happend. Anyone studying randomness saying 'you can't roll a dice 10.000 times without ever hitting a 6' just did not well in studying randomness. The correct phrase is 'rolling a dice 10.000 times without ever hitting a 6 is nearly impossible'. 

http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/2274-journey-to-ungoro-is-hearthstones-next-expansion#

Read the "clarification". Quests are spells (yong woo).

and ingame they work like spells mechanically. 

Quote from koooorah >>

calling it now, Spirit Claws 2.0

 Spirit claws was one Mana, it never saw play at 2 Mana. This is spirit claws 2.0 in the sense that at 2 Mana it will never be played

Rank 50 chat OMEGALUL

releasing trash cards in the classic set is probably the safest bet for long-term game health but it's still pretty boring