Hearthpwn

How good would an expensive (8 mana+) vanilla creature have to be to run in constructed? For 8 Mana would you run a 2/22 vanilla creature, even with low power pretty much something impossible to remove. Sadly it wouldn't win you the game, and even sunfurying it on turn 10 wouldn't be hard to silence or deal face damage through

This Poll is already making some pretty clear trends. Most people either have enough gold stocked or can grind enough in the mean time to get the new content or don't feel like grinding and simply will shell out the 25$ which in reality isn't very much money; but if the content is short lived may be a poor investment to some people (especially if they are going to play a lot anyways) 

The more emotes the better since you can't type what you want to say or accurately convey what you are thinking or how you feel. I'll provide some general examples but the exact sayings are imaginative with many freedoms to them. The last category would be the most welcomed. Also sorry for mixxing class type with names but I didn't bother to type out every classes name over and over.

AFK/BRB

A hunter would say something like "Be patient while I prepare my traps". Perhaps the mage would say "I must formulate an incantation". The rogue would say "I must prepare my toxins for the time being". Uther might say "Allow me to ready my weapon." Malfurion could say "Sorry, Nature calls" (LOL). Anduin could say "I need a moment to pray"

Luck or RNG for either party.

The hunter would say something along the lines of "An unexpected headshot". The shaman might say "I see the wind was at your back" or the classic "And they say lightning never strikes twice...". Jaina might say "Well that fortunate". The simpleton of the warrior would have the basic "hmmmmm... Lucky Hit". Uther might say "Fortune favors the bold." Anduin may say "I suppose it is the Light's will." 

Excitment/Impressed/A positive remark/Sincerity.

The rogue would say "Touchée". Uther would sincerely remark "Impressive Stranger". The warrior would say "Not bad weakling". Rexxar would say "Nice shot".

Brush aside/ unwaivered/ not intimidated, anything that says threaten spam or greeting spam doesn't phase you or you're about to squelch them. This is different than threaten and designed to be condescending but in a defensive manner.

Guldan might say "Your arrogance will be your undoing" (Just like Jaraxxus). Uther would say "I grow weary of your tyranny". The rogue may say " Your banter is meaningless to me". Jaina may say "Oh the ignorance you portray" (in a condescending voice). Garrosh might say "Only the meek fight with words". Thrall could say "The howling wind can not move the mountains". Anduin could say "I can no longer suffer this impiety"

And lastly the most important one.

Offer a friend request / Appeal to chat with the player / A signal of mutual interest / Ask for a friend game.

The warrior would say something like "Such strength, I want a rematch" Uther may say "A Vallient battle, perhaps we may duel again" The mage might ask "Would you care to trade secrets?". Rexxar might ask "Close, how about another shot?". The rogue might exclaim "Oh my, care to strike a deal?". Guldan might say "Marvelous, show me your power". Thrall would nicely remark "Remarkable friend, would you fight by my side?" Priest might ask warmly "The light would aid you should you will it" The druid may say "Nature could always use another ally"

This card is INSANE! Feral spirit turn 3 for 2 mana turn 4 you can lava shock and follow up with another totem or 2 drop. This also makes lightning storm turns less of a draw back. Unbound Elemental decks will likely return in overload / burn decks.

Aside form spell power decks, the best thing this opens up is causing heavy overload cost abilities such as Earth Elemental to be playable with being BACK BREAKING from bgh and neptulon lets you get tempo back and spam the board with murlocs. Lava burst got much better too

Shaman finally have tempo back, However I bet this will pigeon hole shaman into dragon spell damage decks with azure drakes and thalnos for the new meta. Maybe malygos burn will be bomb now

FIRST!

No but seriously I can see this card being great in enrage, command shout and bouncing blade decks. Even if a 2/5 is rather weak for a 4 drop, it's a hunter hero power at worst and in some cases a Pyroblast! With a commanding shout combo + wild pyro + inner rage you could blow someone up similar to an oil rogue.

Also, Dr Boom, Knife jugglers and other death rattle aoe / rng missles beware. Use it against this guy and you might blow your face up.

Here is my single submission after tweaking Magma Rager themed cards in the discussion thread. We need to see this card more in an epic way. High Tier Fun while still being a viable card. Named after the Core - Mantle boundary thermal anomaly but fitting to Shaman. Magma Rager Hype!

Posted on the discussion page with thoughts/details, starting at page 11. This is my only/single submission.

What deck are you running currently, a list would be a great start and general strategy. Its a rough climb with shaman atm since zoo is a toss up and priest is a nightmare but its much better off than trying to rank up with rogue :(. I mean most people are playing agro atm for early season quick games and simpler trading. Shaman with so much control, even mid range tends to have slower games.

It's very doable but you'll need to put in a lot of time, some shaman decks are very viable atm

Quote from Justice1337 »

Well with Slyvannas in the Beta, 100% of people played her at 5 mana.  Still, there isn't much of a substitute for her effect anywhere, only other 6 drops that are nearly as efficient such as Cairne.  But, that was the beta, and of course there were going to be some tweaks made to avoid a homologous game.  

Now though, making sure that every deck runs different cards isn't a hugely important goal.  So, if there's a card or two that gets run in a ton of decks, it is no big deal for the game as long as it doesn't enable any sort of passive strategy that players don't like playing against.  Which Dr Boom doesn't do.  He's just a very efficient 7 mana card.  No crime there, just the best at what he does.

It's also a new card.  The same things could be said regarding Ragnaros about being the best at that mana cost and being played everywhere, only no one would be giving an ear to it because we have all been playing against it for years now and having perfectly good games.  If anything, the card being new also leads to it getting played more on fun factor, and then competitive people also see it getting played everywhere and think they're missing something otherwise.  But Hearthstone isn't fundamentally different now with Dr Boom than it was before.  Just a totally fair card.

Novice engineer got nerfed for being in too many decks, but you are right about it being a new card. Perhaps they make him a 6/7 so he dodges bgh to compensate for his stat nerf (I doubt they'd make him a 6/8 but maybe that'd be the point where people consider him op). A 7/6 or 7/5 with the bomb ability still the way it is (so its still good) would still make him great.

In regards to him needing to be nerfed for war golem, lets be honest guys. Even if war golem were an 8/7 and a mech it would never see play. A buff to war golem I think would help make some F2P players feel better and maybe see him in a niche deck? but for the most part you'd never see him again (even in arena it wouldn't make a big difference)

Quote from Mrrraggglhlhghghlgh »

Quote from Memik »

Okay guys, Most of you say ''Handlock is fine''  And i know the reason.

We all said Rogue is fine also. Will see how they will respond about Handlock and Dr. Boom.

I personally don't play Handlock and still think it's fine. Miracle Rogue was absolutely broken.

Miracle Rogue was fine after the leeroy nerf, malygod took until turn 9 at least and usually turn 10 for bust. Loatheb and sludge belcher also made the match up rougher for the rogue. The rise of cancer agro was killing miracle rogue very quickly in addition to controls tools. With the addition of troggdor and antique heal bot among other anti rogue cards in the GvG set, miracle rogue would still already be dead or very hurt. The auctioneer nerf is widely considered grossly unwelcomed and seamed to drag the deceased corpse of miracle rogue out in the woods and shoot it just to make sure it was dead. Even hunter was't nerfed nearly as hard :( it's a case of a deck that was originally op, nerfed, fine, nerfed and then nerfed some more.

As a Shaman player there are many up hill battles (most match ups are neutral or bad) and while priest may seam unbeatable I feel sad when i see a rogue because that's one of the only times I know i have the upper hand (warrior being the other easy match up). Rogue is definitely in a bad place atm but it will probably be so for a while until new cards come out. Idk what they can do for shaman but it's also in a bad place comparatively too.

One of the biggest factors for telling both of these classes aren't fairing well is that shamans got ancestors call (a fun bad card) and murloc tribal. Just when i thought stiltfin was a bad card, rogues got  one-eyed cheat (probably the worst gvg class card) and pirate tribal. Yea gallywix, sharp sword oil and imo Ogre ninja are great cards but not enough to salvage the sea of crap rogue got (cogmasters hammer is awful too). Card nerfs hurt rogue a lot (maybe as punishment for being too good last year).

Perhaps months after handlock and zoo aren't good they'll be nerfed into the ground based on old data too.

Arcane Nullifier X-21 I would say while not praised, it's never over looked and beloved in many shaman control mech decks.

In terms of under rated for cards people thought were absolutely unplayably bad but turned out to be playable but not good Bolvar Fordragon is actually playable in decks as hes some what decent.

Obviously Dr. Boom was seen as just a buff war golem until people found out he was OP.

Trade Prince Gallywix is best class legendary in GvG Imo and if not for the strong Rogue nerfs you'd probably see a lot more of him. Neptulon while not as good is surprisingly good and only due to being overshadowed by Dr. Boom (and shaman not being popular) he's seen less often. Definitely these 2 are the sleep class legendaries.

For arena Force-Tank MAX is surprisingly good, you'd assume he'd be just lack lust like war golem or a 7/8 for 8 but he often forces removal and can be difficult to remove efficiently. Lost Tallstrider is another great arena card, a reverse yeti that offers better tempo than a brewmaster, if your a druid or a hunter your opponent has to consider synergy options too.

It depends on the volume and context. I see a fair number of people put lethal on the board, spam threaten and thank you and wait for the very last moment of the rope to burn to finish you off, often times they will hover the spell over your face and move the spell arrow in a circle over your face until rope burn.

Other things include taking the maximum amount of time for every turn from turn 1 making an other wise short game upwards to over half and hour saying thank you or threaten. In those seldom cases they are generally heinous but I'd like to consider if your opponent only sends 1 emote or 2 each turn and only plays extra cards for fun and doesn't wait max time then its fine.

It's safe to say most people say it out of just commonality where if they win you just say gg the game ended your unlikely to have hard feelings. When you lose a game out of your control because of RNG then you might be upset and less inclined to say gg. I would bet most people are calm or nice about but you can't really tell what they are trying to say. It's a real shame blizzard blocked all forms of chat in the game :(

At least Dr. Boom is overpowered enough to be in all decks except implosion zoo so you can run 1 bgh for guaranteed value (maybe it'll help vs bolvar, malrone or neptulon too in other match ups). Yea Handlock is ridiculously strong atm but its debatable if its strong enough to be considered op. I think it could use a tweak just to make it more fun to play again. The giants on early turns are handlocks gimmick which aren't hard to play around, if you play shaman or silence heavy decks then twilight drakes aren't much of a problem either. The 4 board clears really make the deck frustrating to play against though, i think foe reaper or a dragon are the only things that survive.

GvG seams to have made the rich get richer since control warrior got control maiden and Dr. Boom while hand lock got dark bomb (much more ideal than soul fire for hand lock) and antique heal bot (really helps vs hunters and burst decks). I assume your playing a mid range deck, if so you will essentially lose most your games vs hand lock since its a deck that's strong vs mid range.

Handlock can beat every deck but it has an unfavorable (unfavorable as in about even footing) with cancer hunter so you can always just net deck the face hunter deck to play against hand lock. Trump even said its the deck to beat right now so BGH is your best friend. You could also use Sacrifical Pact in your zoo or demon deck to get free wins vs Jaraxxus.

Over all yea it's not an easy deck to play but it is rather disheartening to see such a strong deck omnipresent across high ladder, have warlock the class almost always banned in tournaments where they offer a ban and on most of the ranked streams (its much more fun to watch than zoo or cancer so that's still a plus). Maybe if miracle rogue wasn't nerfed into the ground and shaman being rather weak atm you'd see the natural counters shut down hand lock but all the pieces just feel into place that way :/

*Edit* Also I wouldn't take the flaming or negative "L2P" noob comments seriously, they are bound to come on any discussion of buffing or nerfing, people fear change. Generally these things fall into some kind of balance, people will say hand lock makes the sky fall because its so OP and other people say its not only fine but a weak deck and could use some buffs. It's usually somewhere in between,.

Lightning Shield has the added benefit of not being used on your hero guaranteeing a a unit will trade up. Also while you are paying 2 in the long run your essentially paying nothing the turn you play lightning shield making the tempo gain of 3 attack in trading definitely worth while. It might be considered a bad card but its definitely playable, class cards can't all be stellar. Perhaps +4 attack might be more appropriate, it can't have a chump blocker mechanic since it needs to differ from noble sacrifice. This makes me feel a redesign is in order to lightning shield.

-Updated version of previous post

While it might be considered over powered despite being a 2 mana delayed lightning bolt, another possibility to make lightning shield both unique and still good would to cause the activation of lightning shield to zap the target for 3 spell damage thus protecting the creature potentially. Much like will be explained with purge, lightning shield will benefit from spell damage creatures offering some surprising combos, especially in Malygos decks. With no chump blocker, surviving creatures will live to deal damage and this will ensure protection to a minion as your face is not protected by lightning shield. There is also an added benefit of 2 sources of damage killing divine shield attackers (1st from the secret, then 2nd from your creature that is being traded for). Purge on the other hand i feel is fine the way it is with no need for a redesign.

Purge I would agree would in general usage be inferior to earthshock since your opponent controls what is silenced, however a few scenarios offer a slight edge over earth shock aside from the chance to deal 1 extra damage. (I'm aware rare scenarios shouldn't be a basis for balancing). Sharing a similar price and effect purge has to be in line with the hunter card snipe. First at 0 mana initial cast, you can cast purge on a turn you have 0 mana left over, over loading yourself buffs unbound elemental without using mana for the turn (also would make tesla coil great), it forces your opponent to play a lesser creature that turn to play around purge and finally, it stops you from being comboed to death, you can stall gromash + task master, Alkir + rock biters or even king krush (removes charge on all 3) which is something earth shock cannot do. You trade control and a higher cost to alter your opponents play and provide safety in addtion to those rare overload synergies. Also your opponent would need to be aware of your spell power minions very carefully since having a spell power totem and a drake would make purge surprise them with a 3-4 secret burst (spell power is factored upon activation of the secret, not the playing of it). If the enemy has a fire elemental and chooses to kill a taunt totem over a spell power totem, the fire elemental would take 1 extra damage. Other odd synergy involve acting as a free draw with auctioneer (if you'd even still use that card) or making violet teacher more appealing. Malygod would be silly with this spell, you could malygos, lighting bolt for 10 mana and both purge + lightning shield to protect malygos. Even more potential with ancestral calling malygos, unloading your hand of spells and finishing the turn with 2 spell damage secrets.