Hearthpwn

Quote from Neameto jump

Hi guys!

I just pulled a combo that I thought to share with everyone.

Im new in the Hearthstone scene and some of you might thought about this combo way back when the card was announced. But from I´ve seen, everyone seems to underestimate this card, like my opponent did. :)

Hope this inspire some great plays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcrhRvwxYqs

Good game to you guys.

The problem is that, when Icehowl gets silenced, he loses his charge.  A silenced Icehowl is just a vanilla 10/10 for 9 mana, which is not very good, and on top of that, it requires you to use up your silence.  Compare him to North Sea Kraken, whose battlecry can hit the face, or can hit a target behind a taunt.

The reason Icehowl is underwhelming is that all he does is kill a minion.  If he kills a big minion, he won't have much health left, and can be finished off with a small card.  That means he's basically a Big Game Hunter, except he costs 6 more mana.  If your opponent has Ragnaros on the board and you need to kill it, would you rather do that by playing Icehowl, or by playing BGH, and then having 7 mana left to cast Dr. Boom or Sylvanas?

Despite this problem, there are some decks that could potentially use Icehowl; he does make an impact on the board the turn he comes into play.  He wouldn't be bad to have in an Aviana/Astral Communion ramp deck, and he wouldn't be a bad thing for Varian Wrynn to pull into play.  But he's a 9 drop. What do you pull out of Ramp Druid or Control Warrior decks to make a slot for this? Ysera?  

Icehowl would be really interesting if he cost 7 or if he had Windfury, or if he could ignore Taunt or something.  But as it stands, he isn't good enough.

Quote from Tahladnas jump

His cost is fine, it is his stats that are the problem. 7 attack is way too high, make him a 4/7 and he will be fine.

Then he's a huge body that trades really efficiently, but can't be BGHed.  

Double Innervate plays are extremely rare to draw, and extremely vulnerable to stuff like Sap and Execute.  

The best opening that you're likely to get frequently is Mana Wyrm, coin, mirror image.  

Quote from Sanelis jump

Playing with cool decks does not seem like "nothing". It seems fun.

That is literally why we play Hearthstone.

The pre-built brawl decks are never "cool decks."

Dr. Boom is "strictly better" than War Golem, which was never played anyway, since it's worse in almost all situations, but not "strictly worse" than Boulderfist Ogre, who was never played in competitive constructed, but at least offered solid value for arena and for players with limited card collections. 

Magma Rager is maybe the worst card in the game; unplayable in any format.  The "strictly better" Ice Rager still dies to 1 drops and most AOEs, but at least it doesn't die to hero powers, Mortal Coil, Wrath's 1+draw option, and Whirlwind anymore.

Booty Bay Bruiser is another never-used card that was outclassed by a number of similarly-costed cards.  In vanilla, if your deck needed a midrange taunt to slow down aggro, the pick was always Sen'jin Shieldmasta, because Bruiser's 5/4 stat allocation is undesirable generally, and especially bad on a taunt minion.  Bruiser dies to some three drops, trades unfavorably with Shredder, and dies to shadowbolt, flamecannon and soul burn.  Evil Heckler, a 5/4 taunt at 4, probably still won't be used, but its matchups are at least a little bit less hideously one-sided.

If you really want to talk about power creep, you need to look at cards that used to be played a lot, and aren't now, and consider why.  Sludge Belcher isn't "strictly better" than Shieldmasta, since Belcher costs one more.  But Tazdingo dropped out of the meta when Sludge Belcher became available.  

Cairne Bloodhoof used to be an insane value and a top legendary. Not so much anymore, in large part due to Shredder.  You also see less Ragnaros, because powerful early cards make slow cards like Rag difficult to use.  It will be interesting to see if Tournament brings in a slower meta and Rag comes back.

Quote from RegalSmeagol jump

The fact that shaman has cards like al'akir and neptulon and any other big body that can now be added have been buffed, and he can come out relatively cheap and can reincarnated with one of the shaman's card is sick. I see a lot of upside to this card, while being 4 damage which helps him avoid shadow words in priest which I feel is going to have a strong presence after tgt.

Reincarnate doesn't trigger battlecries again.  This could possibly make mech shaman a thing, since you can bounce him back to your hand with spare parts.  

Quote from DrukMax jump

Quote from Havoc_And_Mayhem »

Mechanics in this game are open to a lot of debate... Sometimes you get fucked by something that shouldnt happen this way.

Yeah like priest drawing 6 cards, but he already has 6, so he burns 2 which are a Dark Cultist and Burrowing Mine. Result no damage......and I lost with my weird warrior. Somewhat similar to Sylvanas burn.

Burrowing mine should blow up even if their hand is full.  Blizz should fix that interaction.

This is a Mage version of Ball of Spiders stapled onto a 7/7 body.  It's a good card.

Quote from sluwbor jump

warsong is 3 mana, shredder can't summon it

Faceless manipulator vs a warrior. Full board clear, even vs patrons.

This is good for controlling the board.  He kills the biggest minion your opponent has when you drop him, and then they have to use something else to kill him, or he'll kill another minion of your choice.  He is always going to get value.  In all those situations where you drop Rag and have to hope he hits the right target, this is better.  He also instagibs Ancient of War and has 5 health left after.

The Aviana ramp Druid deck might use this.  Control Warrior and Control Pally might use it as well.  If we see the meta shift toward control, this is a good card.