Nerf everything, give us all 1/1 imps with a single 3/3 rabbit and it's a race to whomever gets the rabbit to stick first. Hero powers should be a neutral power that is shared across the board, I suggest 2 mana heal your target for 0, that shouldn't be too strong but it can be monitored and changed as needed.
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Ravzar posted a message on Priest and discover are brokenPosted in: PriestWhy is everyone complaining about these decks that don't win, and no one is complaining about the deck that is favoured vs literally every deck in the game (ok it's even vs warlock).
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xskarma posted a message on Hearthstone Esports suspends ZalaePosted in: General ChatJust to get ahead of this early: If you are going to victim blame, you can expect your post to receive moderation attention.
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HoraceStapleton posted a message on The Exhaustive Forged in the Barrens PreviewPosted in: General DiscussionBelow I have written a guide detailing my predictions for the upcoming cards in the Forged in the Barrens set. Similarly to Trump, I will be grading each card from 1 to 5 stars, meaning:
5 Stars: Staple in a Tier 1 deck or a staple in multiple Tier 2 decks.
4 Stars: Occasionally used in a Tier 1 deck, a staple in a Tier 2 deck, or a staple in multiple Tier 3 decks.
3 Stars: Occasionally used in a Tier 2 deck, a staple in a Tier 3 deck, or a staple in multiple Tier 4 decks
2 Stars: Sees at least 1% of play in a Tier 4 deck or has seen some amount of tournament success.
1 Star: Fails to maintain a 1% playrate in Diamond or above.I have tried to avoid watching other people's card reviews beforehand, so you can be confident that the opinions below are my own and not tainted by anyone else's perception. Enjoy.
Demon Hunter
Fury (Rank 1) – 5 Stars: Seriously? They hyped up the removal of Twin Slice just to include a card which is frequently better than it? I’m not a huge demon hunter hater myself, but man, this thing is going to be really annoying for the next two years…
Razorboar – 4 Stars: This is the first in a long line of 4s I’m going to give to Demon Hunter’s deathrattle cards. Simply put, Razorboar is absolutely busted and is comparable to Nerubian Egg in the value it provides. Demon Hunter doesn’t have much in the way of Deathrattle synergy, but this is more than good enough to make the class interested.
Vile Call – 1 Star: If we look at the cards that have been successful with Il’gynoth, all of them do not require much setup beforehand: Felscream Blast deals its damage immediately, and you can play Aldrachi Warblades early and keep it out until you need it. This card, like Insatiable Felhound, can only combo with Il’gynoth if the minions it generates stick, and that’s just not reliable enough.
Razorfen Beastmaster – 4 Stars: Another great card that allows for more mana cheating. This card is dependent on good 4-mana deathrattles to function well, but fortunately the neutral section has one I’m quite intrigued by.
Sigil of Silence – 1 Star: While this spell is cheap, silence effects typically only work well when they are immediate. You don’t want to be waiting around for the effect, so there’s not much you can really do with this.
Tuskpiercer – 5 Stars: A 1/2 weapon which draws a card? For one mana? This card’s power level is comparable to Ancharrr and it will see play not just in Deathrattle Demon Hunter, but also in any deck which runs even a small number of deathrattle cards. Obscene.
Sigil of Flame – 3 Stars: Reminds me of Imprisoned Observer, but the effect is faster, stronger, and cheaper (with no body, sadly). This could easily fit into any slower Demon Hunter deck; the only question is how playable those decks will be. I predict there will be at least one which will pick this up.
Vengeful Spirit – 4 Stars: Extremely good when the Outcast effect pops off, but the curve of a potential Deathrattle deck makes it a little awkward to get out of your hand. Still a good card but not quite as game-breaking as it looks at first glance.
Death Speaker Blackthorn – 4 Stars: It’s Captain Hooktusk, but cheaper, and Hooktusk wasn’t around when Taelan Fordring was around to tutor her. I was initially skeptical of Deathrattle synergies working out, but this card is more than good enough to justify building around, and the class is getting some other great cards which work well with it.
Kurtrus Ashfallen – 3 Stars: A significantly improved version of Illidari Felblade which could fit in if Outcast synergies are strong enough in Demon Hunter. With Kor’vas, Illidari Studies, and Gan’arg Glaivesmith, this could be a legitimate direction for the class.
Demon Hunter Class Summary
Forged in the Barrens Ranking: 5th
Year of the Phoenix Ranking: 3rd
Overall Ranking: 4th
Demon Hunter has had a great first year, but this hasn’t come without a cost: most of its premier, meta-defining archetypes have suffered multiple nerfs since then. However, there’s room for further optimism. Aggro Demon Hunter is losing almost nothing from rotation and the cards that it got in Barrens should be respectable replacements. Those bored of this archetype can give Deathrattle Demon Hunter a shot, since this deck also shows promise and potentially could be even stronger (but my money is on Aggro as the better deck). Either way, Demon Hunter should be in a healthy spot: a strong, competent class, but far from being the meta-breaker it used to be
Druid
Pride's Fury – 1 Star: Reminds me of Adapting Spores which never saw play. It’s too reliant on having a board set up, and its effect is far from game-winning when it pops off. All in all, a very sad replacement for Savage Roar.
Thickhide Kodo – 3 Stars: Pretty bland and uninspiring. It’s really not that much better than TAZDINGO, which doesn’t see any serious play at all. So why does it get three stars? Well, there’s an upcoming card which we really, really want to run, and it’s looking for serviceable taunt cards. This might fit the bill.
Thorngrowth Sentries – 1 Star: It’s not a terrible card, but it just doesn’t do enough. The Taunt Druid synergies that the class is getting overall aren’t particularly amazing, and this is never a card that you’d want to run without some clear synergies. It does work well in Gibberling Druid, but I suspect the loss of Savage Roar will be a deathblow to that deck.
Living Seed (Rank 1) – 1 Star: The base form is bad, the 5-mana form is barely passable, and the final, 10-mana form, is…slightly above average? This doesn’t even come close to making a Beast Druid deck viable, and it might not even make the cut if such a deck existed. In all fairness, considering that Druid is the ramp class, it makes sense that its Rank card is one of the worst of the bunch.
Mark of the Spikeshell – 2 Stars: This would be a lot better if Druid had a good 1-mana Taunt minion to target this with (think Enchanted Raven to the original Mark of Y’Shaarj). As it is, I don’t think it makes the cut in any Druid deck. I could be totally wrong here, but I think it’s too awkward.
Razormane Battleguard – 5 Stars: Comparable to Foxy Fraud, but with the added upside of being able to repeat the effect if it sticks. The taunt minions you play will help the card stick, and even if it doesn’t, it’s such a good deal that I can’t imagine Druid failing to make this work.
Celestial Alignment – 2 Stars: It’s so cool that I wish I could give it a higher rating, but unfortunately it looks like a meme. Paying 7 mana to do nothing is quite punishing, and the payoff isn’t amazing enough to justify it. On the bright side, it really messes up Lorekeeper Polkelt!
Druid of the Plains – 1 Star: Good stats for the cost but doesn’t have the synergy it needs to be viable. Beasts in Druid haven’t been good outside of Guardian Animals, and this can’t be pulled with that card.
Guff Runetotem – 4 Stars: I could see this really popping off. There’s a lot of cheap Nature spells that will work well with this (Innervate, and I assume Nature Studies, are the two best examples). This could work in a token deck, but I think it could also work in ramp-focused decks as well.
Plaguemaw the Rotting – 1 Star: Oh dear. Cards which rely on having a board to function have traditionally not been good unless their effect is game-winning. This card requires BOTH sides to have a board (and your board specifically needs Taunt minions), but the effect is laughable for the required setup. This is one of the worst legendaries in the set and it will be shocking if it sees any play.
Druid Class Summary:
Forged in the Barrens Ranking: 8th
Year of the Phoenix Ranking: 8th
Overall Ranking: 10th
Druid’s prospects look grim. It’s currently kept alive by Token decks, but without a powerful win condition in Savage Roar, those decks will die out after rotation. What does it get to replace them? We have Razormane Battleguard, an incredibly strong card for a weak archetype, and what else? Ever since the Guardian Animals nerf, ramp strategies have done poorly in any meta which is even slightly aggressive, so what can the class do?
Hunter
Pack Kodo – 1 Star: Contrary to what I suspect the general opinion will be, I believe a Beast Hunter deck will be playable after the rotation. However, the deck really doesn’t want to run beasts which don’t directly synergize with handbuffs, so this will not make it in.
Piercing Shot – 2 Stars: This is coming into Standard at the completely wrong time. Face Hunter is losing a lot of the cards which previously made it viable, and this isn’t good enough to stop the bleeding. It’s too bad, because it would be a pretty solid addition if the archetype was still good.
Wound Prey – 4 Stars: I like it quite a bit; when compared to Springpaw, it looks pretty good. Hell, some would argue it’s better since it deals the same damage for less mana. The only problem is the lack of obvious synergies in the set to demand this card’s inclusion (except maybe Barak Kodobane),
Prospector's Caravan – 2 Stars: Hunter has quite a few cards which could make this work. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t strong enough to make the final cut. Its effect is slow, and there are quite a few cards in the meta which can instantly kill it when played on curve.
Sunscale Raptor – 5 Stars: This is the third expansion in a row Hunter has gotten an insane 1-drop, and this is likely better than the other two. The card has great synergy with the plethora of handbuffs available to the class, and at worst, it’s a 1 mana 1/3 with an upside. Should be a no-brainer inclusion.
Tame Beast (Rank 1) – 4 Stars: Really clever design choice here: Druid, the class which ramps the easiest, gets the weakest Rank card, while Hunter, a class which rarely makes it to Turn 10, gets the strongest one. Fortunately, it doesn’t need to wait until Turn 10 to summon a 4/4 beast with Rush, which is pretty good on its own and gets even better when you take a look at one of Hunter’s legendaries…
Kolkar Pack Runner – 1 Star: Man, this card is so weird. They do realize that Unseal the Vault is rotating, right? I mean, Blood Herald will be happy to see Hunter players trying to summon lots of tokens, but I can’t imagine a functional archetype which is interested in this. Am I missing something?
Warsong Wrangler – 4 Stars: Unlike beast buff cards of the past, this one can choose which beast gets buffed. That dramatically improves the consistency of buffing the right target, and it also means we have a little bit more leeway to run beasts which don’t directly synergize with buffs (such as, say, Helboar).
Barak Kodobane – 3 Stars: This card obviously offers excellent value. However, it’s still unlikely to see play in the upcoming meta because if we look at Beast Hunter, it doesn’t have many 1 or 3 cost spells that it wants to run, and if we look at other Hunter archetypes…well, how much chance do those have of really seeing play? A great card to look at for the future, but I think attempts to add suboptimal cards to Beast Hunter to justify Barak will be unsuccessful.
Tavish Stormpike – 5 Stars: This was a card I was initially unsure of due to its awkwardness, but upon further reflection, I think the class has enough good beasts to make this a good win condition. It’s a great way of getting the buffed cards in your deck out on the field, and if it sticks for a turn, your opponent will be in a world of pain.
Hunter Class Summary
Forged in the Barrens Ranking: 4th
Year of the Phoenix Ranking: 10th
Overall Ranking: 7th
Hunter is coming into the new year with the worst Year of the Phoenix cards, so it’s understandable that some will dismiss the class. Now, at the risk of overestimating Hunter’s beast synergies for the third time, I can actually see a real deck emerging, and some of the cards in the core set heavily support the archetype as well (Dire Frenzy, anyone?) Hunter’s not going to be one of the strongest classes, but if it’s playable, then I’m exited for it.
Mage
Oasis Ally – 4 Stars: I’m going to make a bold prediction: Secret Mage is going to be the best Mage deck after rotation. Furthermore, this is a great secret for it to run, as it synergizes well with Game Master, an upcoming neutral minion, and the Freeze package.
Refreshing Spring Water – 2 Stars: This is a great buff for Spell Mage, a deck currently stuck in Tier 4. Will it be enough to make the deck a competitive threat? Not really; Spell Mage is losing a lot to the rotation and it will need more than this to keep up. In other decks, the effect is far to inconsistent to ever be worth considering.
Runed Orb – 4 Stars: A solid replacement for Frostbolt. If Spell-Damage decks continue to exist, they will pick this up in a heartbeat, but even if they don’t, the card is good enough as a standalone to potentially warrant inclusion.
Flurry (Rank 1) – 3 Stars: Not a bad value for the cost, although this will only really see play with the help of cards like Glacier Racer. It compares favorably to Cone of Cold and has synergy with the legendary, so it’s not unthinkable that a Freeze package will make it into a deck at some point.
Reckless Apprentice – 1 Star: I wanted to believe in this archetype so bad, which is what makes this rating so painful to give. This card is mediocre on its own, which means it’s reliant on having a Fallen Hero in play or having played a Wildfire or two beforehand. The tragic thing is that this is one of the better cards that the archetype received.
Rimetongue – 1 Star: This card is rather awkward to set up, and the payoff for each Frost spell played is lackluster. Mage just doesn’t have enough cheap Frost spells to justify putting this in your deck.
Arcane Luminary – 2 Stars: Remember Cyclone Mage? That deck could have really used a card like this, but now it’s long gone, and many of its most important pieces (such as its namesake) are rotating. Mage just doesn’t have the card generation that it used to have.
Wildfire – 1 Star: You’re spending 2 mana to do nothing. Remember how bad Dinomancy was? This is even worse because the “upgraded” hero power is dramatically weaker. If a Hero Power focused deck is forced to run cards like this, that’s already a massive warning sign.
Mordresh Fire Eye – 1 Star: Theoretically, this could be a decent win condition for Hero Power Mage. The thing is, it’s slow, difficult to set up, and it doesn’t win you the game even after being played. It’s not really good enough on its own, either.
Varden Dawngrasp – 4 Stars: A versatile card which puts the original Frost Nova to shame. It’s perfectly fine as both a standalone and a piece of the Freeze Mage puzzle. We all know how oppressive AoE freeze effects are. There’s no reason to think this card won’t be just as oppressive.
Mage Class Summary
Forged in the Barrens Ranking: 9th
Year of the Phoenix Ranking: 5th
Overall Ranking: 9th
Unfortunately, the rotation will be crueler to Mage than most other classes. All of its key archetypes will be losing cards which are crucial to how they perform. Its new set doesn’t inspire much confidence (get it? Inspire?) and while the Freeze cards look decent as a package, they can’t singlehandedly carry a deck to success. Maybe its secret archetype can survive losing its Uldum cards and coast by into playability? I don’t know, it’s kind of a long shot.
Paladin
Galloping Savior – 4 Stars: The effect is rather hard to trigger, which ironically makes it function excellently in decks with Cannonmaster Smythe and Northwatch Commander. However, the payoff isn’t super impressive: compare it to Rat Trap and it appears underwhelming. Paladin wants secrets, but this might suffer the same fate as Open the Cages last expansion; I can’t guarantee that it’s good enough to make it in.
Invigorating Sermon – 4 Stars: Expensive board-wide buffs like this can be hard to set up, but Silver Hand decks are good at flooding the board, which should help a lot. The hand and deck buffs are rather slow but will be very oppressive over time.
Knight of Anointment – 3 Stars: Pretty good value in any deck which runs a decent number of Holy spells. Because Paladin currently has so many great options available to it, it is unlikely a deck focusing on Holy synergies will materialize, but this could still see play as a standalone.
Northwatch Commander – 5 Stars: A 3/4 which draws a card is great value, and the relative ease of getting secrets in play will help this along quite well. It's a bit weaker when played on Turn 4 or later, and your opponent might proc your secrets ahead of time, so it would be nice if there was some way of cheating a secret out on the turn we play this...
Soldier's Caravan – 4 Stars: Most of the caravans are pretty bad, but this one feels like the benefit is worth the risk of it suffering removal: Two silver hands on the board can be leveraged to great effect. Add that to the fact that Paladin has recently received a ton of support for the Silver Hand archetype while losing very little (IIRC Air Raid is the only significant loss), and the deck should be pretty clean.
Sword of the Fallen – 5 Stars: Secrets in Paladin weren’t looking so hot until this card showed up. The ability to cheat out THREE secrets from your deck is busted beyond belief. This card will be instrumental in bringing the long-ignored secrets to the forefront of the class.
Conviction (Rank 1) – 5 Stars: This card is monstrously good for Silver Hand decks. One of the major issues with the archetype in Darkmoon Faire was the lack of a good way to leverage the Silver Hands into something truly threatening, since there weren’t many good ways to buff them. At 5 mana, this card offers +6 attack on the board if you have two minions, which is easy to achieve. Conviction gives the Silver Hands some sorely needed aggression.
Veteran Warmedic – 1 Star: This card is fairly clunky and, while many Holy spells are cheap, it requires significant setup to be worth the effort. It’s not horrible; it’s simply outclassed by the many better options available to Paladin.
Cannonmaster Smythe – 5 Stars: What an interesting effect! Losing the secrets temporarily isn’t a huge downside, and the benefit from playing this is very large. This card will easily make it into any deck which runs a lot of secrets, and there’s plenty of incentive to do so.
Cariel Roame – 4 Stars: I can see the potential here. Even if Roame doesn’t stick for a second swing, an Emperor Thaurissan effect is clearly very enticing. Libram Paladin will greatly appreciate additional mana discounts, and I don't think this is redundant with the Aldor cards. Looks very nice.
Paladin Class Summary
Forged in the Barrens Ranking: 3rd
Year of the Phoenix Ranking: 1st
Overall Ranking: 1st
Paladin is an embarrassment of riches. Ashes of Outland and Scholomance Academy gave it two of the strongest sets it has ever received, and while the Silver Hand cards from the Darkmoon Faire haven’t made an impact yet, the additional support from the Core Set might push it into playability; and not only that, Soldier’s Caravan is easily the best “caravan” card and should help the deck quite a bit. If Librams and Silver Hands both fail (they shouldn’t), the class also has great Secret synergy available, with Sword of the Fallen and its triple-Mad Scientist effect screaming to be played. In exchange for all these great new cards, Paladin is only losing its infamously bad Year of the Dragon sets (still, RIP Ramp Paladin). The class looks so, so good and it should be extremely oppressive for the next four months.
Priest
Desperate Prayer – 4 Stars: This card is a huge buff for virtually all Priest archetypes. Control decks don’t care about healing the enemy’s face and they’ll gladly take the healing, whereas any deck running Xyrella will be thrilled at the prospect of dealing up to 10 damage to all enemy minions. An absolutely phenomenal addition to Priest’s arsenal.
Devouring Plague – 1 Star: 3 mana for 4 damage is a very bad trade and tacking on Lifesteal doesn’t do much to help that. Think of how bad Soul Cleave is; this isn’t much better, and even the life-gain synergies Priest has won’t cause this to see play.
Power Word: Fortitude – 3 Stars: This is a pretty good card in a fairly weak archetype. While the synergies with Sethekk Veilweaver are obvious, spell-heavy Priest decks have failed to make an impact in the Darkmoon Faire meta, and when you see the other cards the deck is getting, it will become apparent that this isn’t changing soon.
Lightshower Elemental – 5 Stars: Dang, this card is overtuned. 8 health to all friendly characters? And it’s not even understatted? And it has taunt? This is a card so good it will easily be a buildaround for the new Heal Priest archetype, and it will probably see play even if that archetype doesn’t pan out (but it probably will).
Soothsayer's Caravan – 1 Star: This is a minion in a deck which really wants to be running spells instead, and not a particularly good one at that. This card is so weak if removed on the turn it’s played, and it’s especially horrible when you’ve fallen behind. The payoff if it sticks to the board? A single randomly generated spell. This isn’t even close to worth the effort.
Void Flayer – 2 Stars: Another minion designed for a spell-centric deck. This is a little bit better than Soothsayer’s Caravan, but it’s still not amazing even when you have 5+ spells in hand.
Condemn (Rank 1) – 4 Stars: An excellent board clear for Priest. Control decks are comfortable playing the long game, so the 5 and 10 mana forms will frequently become relevant. We all know how good Breath of the Infinite is, and this card is usually going to be just as good, or even better.
Priest of An'she – 4 Stars: This is a pretty good payoff card, although it would be significantly worse if Desperate Prayer didn’t exist. Unlike the other Heal Priest cards, this probably won’t see play outside the archetype because standard Control-focused Priest decks don’t care about big piles of stats, but the Heal Priest deck should be strong enough to warrant a 4-star rating regardless.
Serena Bloodfeather – 3 Stars: This is the card that Natalie Seline whishes she could be. If you play it against any large minion (let’s say an 8/8), then you’ve just summoned a 5/5 which debuffed an enemy minion for 4/4, and this is all for 2 mana. Now, this card is fairly weak against aggressive decks with small minions like Aggro Rogue, which means it’s a meta-dependent choice which isn’t always going to be amazing. However, when it pops off, it’s a great tech card.
Xyrella – 5 Stars: So, uh, Flamestrike is a card which is priced at 7 mana, and it doesn’t come with a body. With a simple Flash Heal, this can do Flamestrike’s job at a 3 mana discount, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because if you need more damage, you can stack other healing cards before playing Xyrella. And then, of course, there’s always Desparate Prayer, which can singlehandedly deal up to 10 damage to the entire enemy board for four mana. This is easily one of if not the best legendary cards in the expansion and there’s no scenario in which Priest sees play but doesn’t find a way to make this work.
Priest Class Summary
Forged in the Barrens Ranking: 2nd
Year of the Phoenix Ranking: 7th
Overall Ranking: 5th
Priest is getting a really cool set with both some obviously broken cards along with a few that I think are being slept on hard. Priest isn’t known for big minions, but I think cards like Darkspear Berserker, Hecklefang Hyena (yes, really), and Priest of An’she promote a tempo-based Heal Priest deck which can control the board while turning the damage dealt to your hero into a positive. If that doesn’t work out, Priest still has possibly the best new legendary in Xyrella, and it can always go back to the tried and true Control playstyle.
Rogue
Efficient Octo-bot – 4 Stars: Four health can be tricky to deal with on Turn 2, and the mana cheating offered by Octo-bot will make your Field Contact combos so much easier to set up. You can also play mindgames with your opponent with this card: If dropped on an uncontested board, it might make your opponent reluctant to play 3-attack-or-less minions in order to avoid triggering the effect.
Silverleaf Poison – 2 Stars: This card could end up a lot better, but it has to compete with the draw engines of Greyheart Sage and Swindle, and as a result it might not see play. It is also heavily reliant on the success of Swinetusk Shank, another card of dubious quality.
Wicked Stab (Rank 1) – 5 Stars: Rogue games are frequently not going to make it to 10 mana, so we have to ask ourselves: Is the 5 mana variant good enough? The answer is an unambiguous “yes”; Eviscerate has been in so many Rogue decks over the years and this is a version without the Combo requirement.
Field Contact – 4 Stars: The card draw is superior to the card generation Whirlkick Master offered, which helps make up for the higher cost. Anyone who was afraid Combo Rogue was going to die after rotation will be glad (or upset) to see this card.
Oil Rig Ambusher – 4 Stars: 4 mana for 4 damage and a body is a great deal, but the condition is quite steep and it will suck to draw this early. Fortunately, the class has Secret Passage, which should help this card out the way Plot Twist helped Keli’dan the Breaker see play.
Paralytic Poison – 1 Star: Weapon Rogue is an extremely selective archetype with a lot of great cards to choose from. Most of these cards severely outclass Paralytic Poison, since you don’t want to be attacking minions with your weapon; you want to go face instead.
Swinetusk Shank – 2 Stars: It seems like a no-brainer inclusion, but Weapon Rogue already has Self-Sharpening Sword, which is so much better and also not reliant on bad/mediocre poisons to churn out the damage. Weapons are not something you want to have too much of, which means there’s a good chance this doesn’t pass the test of viability.
Yoink! – 1 Star: It’s very cute, but it doesn’t do nearly enough to justify running. Most of the available hero powers are mediocre and not in-line with your game plan (the only ones you really want are the Hunter and maaaaaybe the Warlock one), and Rogue has so many good cards available to it that it will never consider fooling around with this.
Apothecary Helbrim – 2 Stars: Poison-based decks don’t appear to be particularly strong, especially if they’re forced to run mediocre cards like this. The poison pool isn’t terrible, but it still has some cards which you don’t want to put in your deck, so I suspect it will be best to forgo this entirely.
Scabbs Cutterbutter – 5 Stars: That’s a crapton of mana-cheating. Scabbs is Foxy Fraud on steroids and he will be able to trigger some insane tempo plays. A double pre-nerf Preparation effect is absolutely nothing to scoff at, so if I had to pick one nerf candidate out of the entire set, it would probably be this card.
Rogue Class Summary
Forged in the Barrens Ranking: 6th
Year of the Phoenix Ranking: 2nd
Overall Ranking: 3rd
Rogue doesn’t need much from this set to continue to dominate, and fortunately it did end up scoring a few great cards in the mix of mediocrities. The biggest questions going forward for Rogue’s two best archetypes are: will Aggro Rogue be able to shake off the nerf to Nitroboost Poison, and will Combo Rogue be able to survive the loss of some great cards? In both cases, the answer will probably be “yes”, and Valeera should still remain a top contender in the Barrens meta.
Shaman
Arid Stormer – 1 Star: This is highly dependent on activating the elemental ability to succeed, since a 2/5 on its own is very weak. Elementals as a tribe have a pretty terrible track record of seeing play due to the awkwardness of the way they work, and this isn’t impactful enough to change that.
South Coast Chieftain – 4 Stars: The payoff isn’t anything spectacular: a 3/2 which deals 2 damage is just OK, not amazing. But unlike, say, Arid Stormer, it’s also relatively easy to activate, and the next card will make it dramatically easier to do it on Turn 2…
Spawnpool Forager – 5 Stars: What an excellent one-drop! You can almost think of it as a 1 mana 2/3, and it gets even better when you realize how nicely it curves into South Coast Chieftan. It can even be used in non-Murloc decks to decent effect.
Earth Revenant – 3 Stars: Unlike the other Elemental cards, this could work just fine on its own in a control deck. Of course, this means if Control Shaman fails to make an impact, this will likely spend the next four months sitting on the bench. The success of that archetype is highly questionable, especially with so many of its best cards rotating out.
Nofin Can Stop Us – 4 Stars: Savage Roar for Murloc decks, but even better due to the stat buffs being permanent. Remember that Blessing of the Ancients saw play at 3 mana, so even without the Murloc buffs, the baseline isn’t horrible. This is going to be a great finishing blow for the deck to deliver.
Tinyfin's Caravan – 2 Stars: This is probably not good enough for Murloc Shaman. It’s not aggressive at all, and the benefit from having it stick a turn is fairly minor. Card draw is good, but it’s not this good.
Chain Lightning (Rank 1) – 3 Stars: Solid control tool, but this is even more dependent on Control’s success than Earth Revenant. It has quite a lot of synergy with Shaman’s Spell Damage set, but those cards are designed more for aggro, not control.
Lilypad Lurker – 1 Star: This has got a really cool design and artwork, which is why I’m not thrilled to rate it so low. As a removal card, it is highly dependent on the opponent’s board and frequently cannot be played even when the condition is fulfilled. It is weak as a standalone, and Shaman does not have a good reason to run many Elementals. All in all, a massive disappointment.
Bru'kan – 3 Stars: There's quite a few good Nature spells that Shaman has in its arsenal which could make this viable. The problem we run into is that Spell Damage synergies in Shaman have been a failure up until this point. Could this see play as a standalone? Possibly. However, it will probably not be meta-warping enough to define a new archetype, and that's a shame.
Firemancer Flurgl – 4 Stars: So now we’re giving Shaman its own Altruis. Cool. Granted, this is less flexible since it only works with murlocs, but the cheaper cost makes it easier to combo, and anyone who remembers Aggro Demon Hunter knows how good the effect can be when it gets a combo going. With additions like this, Shaman won’t be too upset to lose a lot of its good murloc cards; the replacements are fantastic and will really help the archetype make an impact.
Shaman Class Summary
Forged in the Barrens Ranking: 7th
Year of the Phoenix Ranking: 9th
Overall Ranking: 8th
Shaman’s got some good things going for it, but none of the cards are particularly mindblowing and it’s relatively weak Year of the Phoenix sets mean it has quite the hole it needs to climb out of. Murloc Shaman seems decent, but there’s not really a whole lot else that the class has to work with, so it’ll be shit out of luck if the fishmen can’t pull through. Control Shaman also feels like a long shot and is not an archetype I realistically expect to succeed. All in all, a rather disappointing predicament for Thrall.
Warlock
Grimoire of Sacrifice – 2 Stars: “Destroy a friendly minion” effects, similar to “discard” effects, have typically only worked out in aggressive decks; think Grim Rally and the new Ritual of Doom. The only deck I could imagine running this is Galakrond Warlock, which is rotating out before this can make an impact.
Imp Swarm (Rank 1) – 1 Star: On curve, this card is very bad, and the 5 mana form isn’t really worth the wait. This is only truly good enough for constructed Zoo decks at 10 mana, and those decks usually try to end the game before then. If Deathmatch Pavillion was too slow, I don't see how this ends up working out.
Kabal Outfitter – 4 Stars: Seems like a decent card for Zoo Warlock, albeit not a game-breaking one. Deathrattle buff effects are typically pretty weak, but Battlecry buffs are quite good, and the combination of the two should push this card into viability.
Apothecary's Caravan – 3 Stars: I’m not too keen on the Caravans, so it’s ironic that this turns out to be one of the stronger cards in the Warlock set. The effect is strong enough where I could legitimately see it being worth the risk of it failing to stick, and Warlock has some great one drops that it would love to cheat out.
Blood Shard Bristleback – 1 Star: Warlock loves powerful healing, and this will usually get us more than the baseline of 6. The problem is that it comes with a condition, and that condition requires turning our deck into garbage. Intentionally fatiguing ourselves is not going to be a viable strategy.
Soul Rend – 2 Stars: Five damage to all minions is a lot, and it’s not unthinkable that this sees play in a more generic control deck instead of Fatigue Warlock. The problem is the drawback: what happens when you burn your Tickatus or whatever other win condition you’re running? Even in Fatigue Warlock this is a problem, since there’s no guarantee Neeru Fireblade won’t be burned as well. Ultimately, this is likely too risky to see play.
Altar of Fire – 1 Star: So, when building a successful archetype, there are cards which are strong enough for us to want to build around, and then there are cards which we reluctantly play for the synergy. Altar of Fire is about as far into the second category as you can get: Warlock isn’t going to be winning any fatigue races, so the “upside” is usually never relevant, and the card has basically no other redeeming qualities. Even if the archetype it is designed for sees play (it won’t), this card is so bad it will stay firmly in your collection and likely never leave.
Barrens Scavenger – 1 Star: This card, on the other hand, is a great example of the first category. Its power level is on par with Bladed Lady, and the condition is even easier to set up within the archetype it was designed for. Unfortunately, that archetype is shit, and outside of it, the card is dead until the very end of the game.
Neeru Fireblade – 1 Star: Chef Nomi was playable because he typically won you the game instantly when played. Neeru’s effect is designed to grind the opponent out, but this doesn’t work at all when you’re fighting against the fatigue clock. An infinite portal of imps sounds excellent in theory, but the reality is you’re only going to be living for a few more turns after this is played, and the bottom line is it’s not fast enough to function as the oppressive win condition it’s supposed to be.
Tamsin Roame – 3 Stars: This would probably get a higher rating if it could combo with Twisting Nether, but alas. Fortunately, there are still a few decent spells we can work with. Drain Soul is a great standalone spell and we’re happy to have another free copy, while Siphon Soul is mediocre on its own but very powerful with this card. Throw in Mortal Coil and Grimoire of Sacrifice, and this could be a decent addition to Control Warlock.
Warlock Class Summary
Forged in the Barrens Ranking: 10th
Year of the Phoenix Ranking: 6th
Overall Ranking: 6th
Warlock hasn’t received a single set this bad since Rise of Shadows; hell, this one might even be the worst set it’s ever gotten. So is the class going to die? Not necessarily; Zoo Warlock is staying mostly intact throughout rotation, and Warlock also has Soul Fragments and Tickatus to work with. Control strategies are admittedly a little questionable, so Warlock’s present situation is similar to Shaman’s in that it has one good aggressive deck as its best shot of meta-relevance.
Warrior
Bulk Up – 4 Stars: I think, for the first time in quite a while, a Taunt package actually has a realistic change of seeing play in Warrior. What’s nice about Bulk Up is that it also provides card generation along with the buff: you can kind of think of it as similar to Scavenger’s Ingenuity (and it’s even better if the Taunt minion has already been buffed). A very respectable addition.
Stonemaul Anchorman – 1 Star: I was ready to give this a high rating until I realized Frenzy could only trigger once. That change prevents this card from becoming an efficient draw engine and instead renders it a mediocrity. Warrior didn’t run Big Ol’ Whelp, so why would it run this?
Whirling Combatant – 5 Stars: Absolutely crucial addition to Enrage Warrior. It’s reminiscent of Risky Skipper in that its effect can have an enormous benefit if you know what you’re doing, but at it’s baseline, it’s a respectable removal tool.
Conditioning (Rank 1) – 3 Stars: I’m a little skeptical here, but the existence of Mor’shan Elite prevents me from rating it any lower. Without the prospect of buffing your Elites, the card seems quite weak, since the 2 mana form is awful, and at 5 mana it’s just OK.
Outrider’s Axe – 5 Stars: Finally, just what Warrior has desperately needed: a good Weapon. Outrider’s axe is obviously very good when it draws three cards, and we know from Ancharr just how oppressive a weapon attached to a draw-three effect can be. The only issue with this card is that it competes with Warrior’s strong arsenal of weapons, many of which already cost 4 mana, but I have faith that this will come out on top. I mean, do you really want to use Reaper’s Scythe over this?
Warsong Envoy – 4 Stars: A 1/3 for 1 mana is serviceable enough, but the Frenzy effect means it can be intimidating even later in the game. With 3 or more damaged characters, the effect provides a huge buff which means this humble one-drop can end up dealing an impressive amount of damage. The only issue with this card is the anti-synergy with the legendary: that alone could cause this card to be cut from the deck.
Mor’shan Elite – 5 Stars: So, let’s imagine a hypothetical worst-case scenario when not a single one of the handbuff effects is playable in Warrior. This is still a 5 mana 8/8 with Taunt, with the only condition being your hero needs to have swung his weapon this turn. Weapons have been a crucial part of the class’s identity for a long time, and the class has several great 4 mana cards to get the job done: Reaper’s Scythe, Sword Eater, and now the new Outrider’s Axe.
Rancor – 3 Stars: Definitely one of the weaker AoE effects in a class rife with AoE, but its synergy with Frenzy prevents it from being ruled out. If this kills an average of 3 minions, you can think of it as “deal 2 damage to all minions, and gain 6 armor”, which seems just barely good enough.
Overlord Saurfang – 3 Stars: There are some good Frenzy minions that we can resurrect with Saurfang, but it does encourage us to forgo the smaller ones like Warsong Envoy. The deckbuilding restriction isn’t too severe, but in order to get enough good resurrections, we will likely have to run suboptimal cards such as Taurajo Brave or Stonemaul Anchorman, and that’s not inspiring much confidence.
Rokara – 1 Star: The best way to evaluate this card is to think of it as a 3 mana Power of the Wild with a 2/3 Rush attached. That seems passable at first, but the problem is that this card is in Warrior, which isn’t a token class and doesn’t really want to flood the board. Now, it doesn’t strictly NEED a board to work, and it can buff Rush minions that enter play along with it and survive. Unfortunately, most Rush cards don’t have a lot of health, and the ones that due are typically expensive and difficult to combo with. Easily one of the most overrated cards in the entire set.
Warrior Class Summary
Forged in the Barrens Ranking: 1st
Year of the Phoenix Ranking: 4th
Overall Ranking: 2nd
How fitting that a Barrens-focused expansion would be giving Warrior such an excellent set. The Frenzy mechanic seems designed specifically for this class since the tools available to Warrior are the best for abusing the mechanic. Furthermore, Warrior is drawing from excellent cards in its previous sets which have synergy with a Frenzy-focused build; we all know how good Bloodboil Brute and Grommash Hellscream are already. Top it off with one of the best weapons in the meta combined with the busted Mor’shan Elite, and Warrior appears as if it will continue the excellent performance we’ve seen from it over the past year.
Neutral
Barrens Trapper – 3 Stars: This could make the cut in Deathrattle Demon Hunter. What’s interesting about this one is that the cost manipulation can allow Razorboar and Razorfen Beastmaster to cheat out higher-cost minions than they normally could.
Crossroads Gossiper – 5 Stars: Any deck which runs secrets will strongly consider picking this up. Fortunately, we’ve got four classes, all with respectable secret synergy, so this card has a great chance of seeing play.
Darkspear Berserker – 4 Stars: I can see two good applications for this card. The first is in Deathrattle Demon Hunter as something big you can cheat out, and the second is in a Heal Priest deck which plays self-damage cards with upsides so that it can heal easily.
Death’s Head Cultist – 5 Stars: It’s like a cheap Khartut Defender. A very good defensive option to counter aggro, and the Deathrattle synergy doesn’t hurt either. A variety of decks will be interested in this.
Far Watch Post – 2 Stars: I have to say I’m quite skeptical of Watch Post decks. The watch posts are weak individually, and this card in particular is so bad that it might not see play even in the archetype it was designed for. 4 health can be tricky to remove on Turn 2, though, so this could make it in as a good Turn 2 play.
Gold Road Grunt – 1 Star: Possibly the worst Frenzy minion in the set. It’s easy for your opponent to play around, and we typically don’t want to self-damage it for the effect.
Gruntled Patron – 2 Stars: This feels like too large of a downgrade from Grim Patron for it to be worthwhile, a card which might not even see play if it were around today. It will likely be experimented with and found to be lacking.
Hog Rancher – 1 Star: A vanilla effect which doesn’t offer enough to be Constructed-worthy. We have better options as far as beasts are concerned.
Injured Marauder – 2 Stars: This might make it into a Heal Priest deck, but Priest doesn’t have an enormous amount of cards which heal minions, so it could just sit on the shelf.
Kindling Elemental – 1 Star: A huge buff for elemental decks. Is it enough to make them viable? Not even close.
Lushwater Murcenary – 4 Stars: Great payoff for having a Murloc on the board, which will be easy for Shaman to do on Turn 2. Also perfectly fine later in the game, though less impressive at that point.
Lushwater Scout – 4 Stars: The attack buff is great for Murloc Shaman. Rush is also fairly decent, although it is more of a defensive ability so it’s not as good as it could be.
Oasis Surger – 3 Stars: Looks like a passable card for Hunter, but not one it would be thrilled about running. Handbuffs improve it quite a bit, and the damage to the hero is exactly what Hunter wants to be doing.
Peon – 1 Star: The value is alright, but I think it is outclassed by Wandmaker. The slightly higher health typically isn’t going to compensate for the unreliability.
Ratchet Privateer – 1 Star: This card would be much better if Ancharr was still playable. As it is, the various other weapon buffs that Warrior and Rogue have at their disposal outshine this.
Razormane Raider – 3 Stars: Looks pretty bad until you realize that, when played on an empty board with a followup like, say, Cruel Taskmaster, this becomes a good replacement for Kor’kron Elite. However, your opponent’s board must be empty, or this becomes unreliable, and that could kill the card.
Sunwell Initiate – 1 Star: One of the weaker Frenzy minions. 4 health on Turn 3 isn’t too difficult to remove, and it’s not a card you want to self-damage for the effect.
Talented Arcanist – 2 Star: Spell Damage decks don’t look particularly great, but this card is very nice in them. Unlike most other SD cards, you can just drop it on two and you don’t need to worry about it “sticking” or anything like that, which is great because SD deck often struggle to come up with earlygame plays.
Toad of the Wilds – 3 Stars: Druid and Shaman have a lot of Nature spells, so this could work out fine. The problem is that the decks which would be interested in an early Taunt are probably not going to be top-tier contenders, but it’s a good card regardless.
Venomous Scorpid – 5 Stars: Emperor Cobra is off crying in a corner somewhere. Vulpera Scoundrel also had a similar effect, but without poisonous, and that card saw some play. This should be able to worm its way into some decks just fine.
Burning Blade Acolyte – 3 Stars: Very enticing pull for Death Speaker Blackthorn. When combined with Barrens Trapper, Razorfen Beastmaster can drag it into the field too.
Hecklefang Hyena – 3 Stars: Some might be quick to dismiss this as pack filler, but I don’t think so. It’s like Vulgar Homunculus without the Taunt, and
Horde Operative – 2 Stars: Interesting tech card, but it depends on Secret decks being a huge part of the next meta, and while there will probably be one or two good ones, that isn’t enough to put a 3 mana 3/4 into a Constructed deck.
Mor’shan Watch Post – 3 Stars: Easily the strongest of the watch posts. When placed on an unchallenged board, your opponent will be strongly encouraged to use a spell to deal with it. If not, they’ll have a lot of trouble removing it since the minions the watch post summons can remove the opponent’s minions played.
Taurajo Brave – 3 Stars: Six mana is quite a large investment for a single target removal, especially one which requires another card to combo with it. The only class which can make use of this is Warrior, which would love to resurrect this with Saurfang.
Barrens Blacksmith – 4 Stars: That is an extremely powerful Frenzy Effect. Any deck which cares about buffing the board will try to make this work, although the fact that you need to damage it is quite the challenge for any class that isn’t Warrior.
Crossroads Watch Post – 2 Stars: Pretty good in conjunction with with Mor’shan Watch Post, although it does require a board to already be setup to function. That alone could prevent the card from making a dent in the meta.
Primordial Protector – 1 Star: Is the return of Spiteful Summoner decks upon us? I doubt it, the high cost of this card means you’ll have to wait a while for the payoff, and that’s going to give you trouble compensating for the extreme deckbuilding condition. Remember how bad Spiteful was at 7 mana? This is even more expensive.
Southsea Scoundrel – 1 Star: The main issue with this card is that your opponent will have access to the card you discover before you do, which explains why the stats are higher than average. I don’t really see a deck that would be interested in this: maybe if Rogue had some thief/pirate synergy, it could work, but right now it doesn’t.
Spirit Healer – 1 Star: I’m not confident that playing this and stringing together a chain of Holy spells is going to be a playable strategy in any class. Its viability depends both on having a good board and Holy spells ready to go in hand, and that level of setup strikes me as excessive.
Blademaster Samuro – 4 Stars: This is fairly reliant on Handbuffs to succeed, and Warrior and Hunter can provide them. Because of its high health, the Frenzy effect can easily trigger after attacking a minion, which is excellent for preventing your opponent from building a board.
Kargal Battlescar – 3 Stars: And, topping off the watch posts, we have this excellent win condition. Watch post decks are going to be highly reliant on drawing this, but fortunately its high cost means we can tutor it with Taelan Fordring.
Kazakus, Golem Shaper – 5 Stars: Forgoing the other 4-cost cards in order to build a golem is frequently a winning trade for a lot of decks, and the golems you can create are often enough to decide games. The “summon a copy” ability in particular feels very overtuned and is frequently going to be the best pick.
Mankrik – 3 Stars: Could work in decks with lots of card draw. I’m a little skeptical because the payoff isn’t amazing, and the card can be very slow if you don’t draw the 3/10 in a timely fashion. Because its power level is highly dependent on the timing, this could end up preventing the card from seeing widespread play.
Shadow Hunter Vol’jin – 4 Stars: This is already seeing some play, and there’s no reason to think it will stop anytime soon. A single target “removal” attached to a minion with the potential to break combos is excellent, and we have the proof just by looking at the last meta.
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Kinkyjohnfowler posted a message on Duels is frickin sweet! Why the hate on this site?Posted in: General DiscussionQuote from Kinkyjohnfowler >>Yeah it’s really strange having both a collection requirement and a payment requirement (Tavern Pass).
As for the game mode itself, netdecking + extra RNG just doesn’t appeal to me. If decks were build from random card pools I would probably play it from time to time, but having to understand and learn another meta is too much work for the reward of more overpowered randomness.
If netdecking + extra RNG isn't for you, why do you even play Hearthstone? That's like 99% of all non-Arena games.
It probably isn’t anymore tbh, I came back after a 3 year break and play home-brew memedecks mainly. I’m (naively) hoping that some restraint is used post rotation and a dip in power level and decrease in RNG is seen. If not I’ll probably pop back in a few more years and see how it is then.
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Pizzacats posted a message on Release Barack Kodobane, but no 3-cost spell in the same expansionPosted in: General DiscussionQuote from TMRobinson >>having a smaller pool of 3 cost spells is probably better to nearly guarantee the draw
This comment doesn’t make any sense. You could have 1000 3 mana spells and still guarantee the draw of a certain one because you build your deck. It’s not “generate a random 3 cost spell for your deck and then draw it.”
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Raivotar posted a message on New Shaman Rare Card Revealed - Nofin Can Stop UsPosted in: NewsCool but I was expecting finja
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YoHabloEspanol posted a message on New Demon Hunter Epic Card Revealed - Sigil of FlamePosted in: NewsI'm actually surprised it doesn't also read "deal 8 to the enemy hero's face"
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Dunscot posted a message on Blast From the PastPosted in: Standard FormatI would encourage you to read this here: https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-discussion/247418-darkmoon-coin-for-2000-gold#c1
I know it's a bit long, but it gives you some idea about how to (slowly) catch up. Not a fast solution you are asking for, but since you want to get back into the game, that is the kind of strategy I would recommend.
Also, I'd probably recommend buying the Darkmoon mini-set for 2000 gold over Phoenix packs. You know what you get, some cards are really good, and in a long term perspective, it gives you a very good deal in terms of dust.
As for decks you can try: I recently came across this deck here: https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1377651-old-guardians-top-1000-legend-budget-mage
While I expect it takes a bit of patience to climb with it, the general idea behind the deck is solid. And it is meant to somewhat counter Stealth Aggro Rogue, which you'll see a lot of (the most popular deck on lower ranks right now).
Of course, the very same Rogue deck is also a good option, and also a relatively cheap. An example would be this here: https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/decks/flinger-aggro-rogue/
While commonly used legendaries like Doctor Krastinov and Jandice Barov are not that essential, Secret Passage most certainly is. If you want to play an aggressive Rogue deck, that card is as critical as it can get.
The Token Druid already mentioned by D-Lord (this one: https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1377043-gibberling-token-druid ) is ok, though I personally find the deck a bit too fragile. You can find yourself knocked out too easily, once your board advantage is gone.
I would advise against Face/Aggro Hunter, as some core cards for that deck will rotate soon, such as Phase Stalker and Toxic Reinforcements.
EDIT: Regarding the bonus stars in Ranked (Wild and Standard):
It has nothing to do with "distribution" but your "internal MMR". Both modes track your MMR (Match-making rank) seperately, and depending on how high it is, the modes give you a star bonus to reach the rank you should have according to the game. Reaching a higher league or improving your MMR over time by maintaining a high winrate will result in a better star bonus next season.
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I am not going to defend either group of players here but I would like to point out a few things:
1. It's honestly good to see that someone still believes that the main driver for buying into a game in 2021 is fun, but the reality looks a lot worse. In fact, most people who spend money on a game like Hearthstone do it because of addiction and fear of missing out. This is an increasing trend in the entire gaming industry and you can easily see this literally in every category of game at the moment. Fun would be great, but the strategy behind freemium games is to tell people that the fun only begins after they spend money and to offer them just enough resources so that they can get used to the game (notice the difference between getting used to it or having fun playing it). The player then decides whether they want to invest more money or time or nothing and quit eventually. Hearthstone does that by keeping legendaries/epics behind a certain paywall, which is not very high if you play a lot though.
2. The thread didn't start with someone suggesting anything (that was me, btw). The thread started with someone complaining about their unlucky legendary rate. It's fair and normal to be frustrated about this and of course, everyone is allowed to voice this frustration. I don't understand the "you paid nothing, so you shouldn't complain" players, but it's true that "you paid nothing, so you shouldn't expect 100% collection". There is a pretty big difference between these two, which many paying players don't seem to understand.
3. You don't need to have all legendaries from each expansion and the 120 packs will also give you a considerable amount of dust. You should keep that in mind. So even if you open a bunch of terrible legendaries, you will still be able to craft a considerable amount of good ones. And don't forget the amount of dust you get between expansions that you can use on day 1, as well as the free core set. I am not saying that 120 packs is enough to get everything you need (it probably isn't), but the dust you can acquire between expansions helps a lot. A full collection really isn't important for anyone, you just need to craft the cards you need and didn't open. Some legendaries and epics are obviously not worth a craft and a top competitive player will have at least some ability to predict those.
4. Do f2p players have to be on the top of the competitive scene? In theory, they can play every mode in the game and climb their way to the top ranks. Do you need to play tournaments as f2p? Also, most competitive top players of any game had to spend money on their career. I don't really see the problem here. On a sidenote, nobody needs a golden collection.
5. Is the rewards track the most efficient way to spend your money on the game? I really don't know and am at least doubtful.
6. There are enough free resources on the Internet to learn everything you need to know about the meta (in theory). And nothing beats experience anyway.
7. The fact that top players have to pay to stay on top is not proof that the game is not f2p. It's called free to play, not free to win the world championships. And on another sidenote, the term "f2p" is kind of awkward in itself because a) freemium is a much more realistic term and b) f2p as a term is often perceived as "you can play, win, get world champion, gain everything within the game, etc. for free" when the actual meaning is "you can play this game without paying a cost upfront". Freemium, on the other hand, implies that the game can be played for free, but isn't really free.
8. I wouldn't defend whiny f2p players (most of them aren't crying all the time, btw, or the forums would be A LOT fuller with complaints) and I wouldn't defend Blizzard's greed either. I just try to make some sense of both and my interpretation of Blizzard's recent behaviour is that they were scared that the Rewards Track would provide players with too many resources because they would farm/play more (this system is a lot more addictive than the original one). For me, this is actually true because I did quite a lot of farming when I was on my PC and had to do other stuff.
9. In your first comment, you say that there are games that don't punish you for not playing. That is definitely not true for freemium games. If you don't invest time or money, you will eventually fall behind. It happens faster for some freemium games and slower for others, but it happens.
10. As I already mentioned before, players who disrespect non-paying players or call their existence meaningless for the game are just ignorant. They should either learn a little more about psychology, games, and current trends in gaming design and monetisation models, or stop posting mindless, unhealthy, and unhelpful stuff. Complaining about people complaining is also complaining, by the way. No reason to look down on others.
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Many cool designs for different paladin decks. The first two are really nice design-wise. Ao and Artanis are cool too. Ao in a Descent of Dragons 2 expansion seems like an awesome idea.
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You could coin the Marowak and discard a Silverware Golem on turn 1 in the best case scenario. That's a very strong 2 card combo, even for wild standards. Maybe as a legendary for reduced consistency.
The Shadowstep potential for Anti-Mage is too much for it to be balanced in standard. The -2 Spell Damage makes several cards pointless (especially any damage-based board clear like Rancor, etc.). It's some nice anti-burn OTK tech, though, so 5 mana is probably justified.
Ooze destroys, or at least delays weapon rogue anyway, but Akali drastically increases your burst potential, so drawing the Ooze becomes even less consistent because you lack time.
Regarding your mage cards, Raichu is scary as soon as spell-only mage can run minions (Font of Power breaks this). Aggron is a lot of fun, but wouldn't see much play for consistency reasons. Deckard could easily be a 1/4 that shuffles 2 scrolls. The card is too weak. I assume that your hero keeps Ahri's Spell Damage for the rest of the game? A cool concept in general, but also very dangerous. 2 damage isn't much, so probably fine. Get it randomly from Font of Power and finish your opponent next turn. Agni is difficult to assess. Probably a bit on the strong side, sometimes a Nether with a body, but sometimes it deals 3-4, which is where this would be fine. Gets a lot worse the longer the game goes. Difficult to see this in any mage deck right now.
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I can tell you that we f2p players do not usually lose to players with full sets because they have more cards. We usually have the same decks and often more experience with them because we couldn't pay much dust to build many other decks, so if we lose, it's because we are worse players than our non-f2p opponents. The game is definitely not pay 2 win and you don't suddenly win because you have more % of a full collection.
Before we end up in a f2p players vs. playing players discussion, I think we can all agree that it would be nicer for both types of players to have slightly less punishing pity timers and averages for opening legendaries. In the end, paying players also benefit from lower pity timers. And that is basically what OP complains about.
Complaining about f2ps or paying players is completely pointless. Both will exist and both will be important for the future of the game. If you can't understand why, you are just being ignorant.
HS isn't cheap, even for a card game, but there are many freemium games out there that are a lot worse.
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I guess I am pretty lucky with my packs and quite successful in Arena since my return when the rewards track launched, but I am only missing 7 legs and 9 epics from the current set as f2p. I can also play every standard deck except for clown druid and rush/control warrior. Another 5k dust and I could even craft them if I wanted. But I remember a time where I opened 1/40 followed by 1/39 and that was extremely frustrating.
I think that the leg pity timer should be reduced to 1 in 30 and the average to 1 in 15, but Blizzard wants to make that sweet money. If you opened 67 packs, chances are that you got a lot of dust. Do you recall how much dust you got from destroying cards you had more than 2 copies of? I would assume that this should be enough for roughly 2 more legs given that these were new set packs. You also got a full set of commons and rares from the new set on day one, so you could try to see the good side of things. It's still not great, but you spent no money on it and can't expect too much as a consequence. As much as I would like to say that Blizzard is greedy, card games in general are expensive.
For the record, 1/5 is an average for epics that was mentioned by Blizzard (whatever that means). The pity timer for epics should be 1/10.
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I fail to see how DIrty Rat has less variance. It literally has the same chance of pulling a minion. Sure, if your opponent pulls a Rattlegore with their Dirty Rat and can't deal with it, that's awesome for you. But if they pull a Mozaki and clear it, it's literally the same thing (plus the card itself costs 5 less, so you can spend quite a lot of mana for the 2nd card and still remain efficient). In that sense, Dirty Rat has a much higher potential to f..k up the player who plays it, so the range of results is even bigger.
Regarding Reynad's video, it feels crazy to be reminded of how coinflip Knife Juggles were winning or losing games back in the day. If you think about it, it's not just about the likelihood of something happening, it's also about the consequences this has for the match. Did these 25, 20, 11% hits make you lose the game or did you even end up winning? Did you lose because of something else and was there a better way to play around Mutanus in the 25/20% games?
If you get frustrated by HS RNG, just remind yourself of what these likelihoods actually mean. I used to play poker a couple years ago and I can tell you that losing to 11-25% is absolutely likely compared to losing to runner/runner hands (hands where you are so far ahead that your opponent needs to hit two out of two cards; in my case, I lost quite a bit of money because I got rekt by players who hit their 2- and 1-out(s) on turn and river in a hand; happened to me 3 times within 2 weeks. Try not to freak out in such a situation). At some point, you have so many games that these unlikely scenarios will eventually happen; I also got a royal flush twice. Just accept that it happens and move on. It's a free(mium) game after all. It's not like you are playing the World Series of Poker, spent 10k to participate, and lose in your very first hand in a 99 to 1% situation.
Regarding your initial question, I remember people talking about how the mini set is weak and how Mutanus is way too slow because of aggro....blablabla. You can always argue one way or another, but the card really doesn't feel too strong or unhealthy for the game and the poll is pretty telling.
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Cool cards and ideas overall. The designs also look nice.
Alonan Marowak, as much as I like Marowak, is probably too good because of wild. Maybe as a 5/3, but 5 attack on a 2 mana minion is very scary. Akasha and Alarak are also potentially scary or at least design-limiting, probably more for standard than wild.
Atropos is an awesome card that I would really like to see in the next set.
Anti-Mage would probably cost 5 or 6 mana with some higher stats because it's basically a Loatheb that gets Shadowstep'ed 2-3 times in the right matchups. I personally think that the card is a little too disruptive compared to cards like the neutral 5 mana 3/7, which is pretty good design-wise.
I would also really like to see Chen, but the card is probably too narrow to be good and another Mutanus against aggro. I would play it nonetheless.
Akali would never ever ever see the light of day. Self-Sharpening Sword, Swinetusk, Kingsbane, and the entire poison/oil package makes this card extremely powerful. A 5-attack weapon would basically be a 6-mana Malygos and there are enough cards in both formats to exploit this as can be seen in the current weapon rogue lists. You only need 2 spells per game to break this anyway because you already have weapon damage. Plus the three most frequent damage spells in rogue that can go face are 1-2 mana, so preparation can help end the game fairly quickly even. You could remove the Stealth and change the card text to "Battlecry: The next spell you play (this turn?) gains Spell Damage equal to the Attack of your Weapon" and that would already be pretty strong (and also punish you for prepping wrongly^^).
Azwraith + Shaw would be very cool though probably not wild level of power and consistency, but I like that. Hunter needs wild support. Could also be ok with Broom in standard.
1
I am usually checking how many high-tier or fun decks I can build and switch after 5-10 games if I have more than one deck. Or, like this month, I try to farm achievements and somehow end up in D5, where I chill for the rest of the month. My deck choice then obviously depends on the achievements I want to farm.
In general, it's good to have several options to adapt to what you are facing and to learn the strengths and weaknesses of decks by playing them yourself.
4
Lol what? Dh has 1-2 tier 1-2 decks in standard at the moment. And it's played 2x in every dh deck that isn't OTK (which is not tier 1 or 2). Are you trolling?
That being said, despite my last 12-1 arena run that was carried heavily by Inquisitor/N'Zoth, and its high potential with several mana reductions in the class and N'Zoth resurrection, I would consider it a card that is still not overpowered. I wouldn't mind it becoming a legendary, though.
We should rather talk about the 3 mana 2/5 elemental from shaman at this point, if we talk about any standard nerfs at all right now.
2
It's day 3 of a MINI(!)-set release. What the heck did you expect to happen when 30 cards are released? Every class got access to what...8 cards or something? What do you expect from a game where the entire meta has been either aggro or mana cheating? What do you expect from a large community and a small card pool? That's exactly what happens all the time.
That being said, Shaman climbed from rank 10 to rank 2 in hsreplay. I have even met 3 different shaman decks since WC released and I didn't even know the class existed. Is that enough of a change for you? Of course, people play the most aggro deck right after set release when others experiment. It's called incresing your winrate.
You shouldn't doubt other people's intelligence and at the same time display complete saltiness for no reason.
I always tell people to take a break from the game because I know first hand that that's the best thing to do when you are as salty as you are. You should try that.