Hearthpwn

To take five damage, play Crystallizer. Shouldn't be too heard. It's not like the 10 damage that Paladin needs for Zandalari Templar. The bigger downside will be that you need to use a card for the healing, but Crystal Power is cheap and can be played with Stalladris too.

Wow, this is actually really good. Maybe not quite enough to make Druid a good class again, but certainly an important step in the right direction. Summoning two 4/4s with Rush for 5 is great both for tempo and survival, and with the new spell Crystal Power revealed, restoring 5 health is absolutely reasonable, and doesn't require you to use trash cards like Healing Touch or Ancient of Lore. Especially with Crystallizer, which will be the new go-to one-drop anyway... coincidence that it all has to do with crystals? And that they have to be epic cards?!

Anyway, this is one of the first few cards this expansion that really gets me excited.

I think Living Roots is better, but it's still alright, especially wirth Stalladris.

This will always draw the minions needed for some OTK combo. This is so broken!!!

Maybe if you are always playing against Yugi Muto. Otherwise, I think there's a slight possibility that you don't always draw cards in the order you need them. Not to mention that you intend to survive 8+ turns without playing a single minion.

I've stated mutliple times in the card discussion thread for pretty much the same reasons Kripp brings up that I'm not really convinced of Togwaggle being the bestest, strongestest card ever and so broken it will be nerfed within two weeks, as some people claim.

I am not surprised to see Kripp being a bit skeptical as well.

Rogue has few means to stay alive, the Lackey generators so far are not great, and since all of Tog's treasures carry a fair amount of RNG, I'm not even sure if he will, on average, be strong enough to win you the game.

It is a good card, perhaps even very good, and can certainly make for some big turns, and Rogue can do all sorts of things to get even more out of him, but it requires a bit of a setup and a turn where you can savely play him. If you are falling behind, you need good means of recover. Rogue simply isn't a good class for these kind of things. Of course, this also depends on the meta, and what other tools Rogue will receive, but my personal guess is that Togwaggle will not be an auto-include for all Rogue decks as people say.

Feel free to prove everyone wrong when the card comes out, but I don't get why people make such a fuss about it. It's just a good card, nothing more.

Quote from Healingpower >>

Maybe they will push Dragon pala harder than the last time with Nightbane Templar. But I still think aggro is too strong and easy to play, so most people won't bother and even if Dragon pala gets any more good dragons, OTK decks will stop this "madness".

 What OTK decks? Mecha'thun Druid without massive armor gain, spellstones, and of all things Naturalize? Or Malygos Druid, without Twig of the World Tree, and Spreading Plague, on top of all the other things leaving? Or do you mean Priest without resurrection, minion cheating, Shadow Visions, Spirit Lash, and Psychic Scream? Or do you mean Mecha'thun Warlock, without Cataclysm and Bloodbloom and not even Dark Pact?

I'm not saying there will be no OTK decks, but none of the ones played right now will remain unchanged in Standard. I don't know what makes you believe that OTK decks will be a major concern for Standard aside from cards that make OTKs potentially possible. Not to mention that the whole meta will change massively.

As for "aggro too strong"... maybe, but all current aggressive decks will have to change too, and it's a bit early to say how good they will be in the end.

It's alright for now, possibly very good when more cheap dragons are added to the game, preferably some with taunt.

Quote from FilthyHearth >>

It's about the balance. Too much aggro, you start to hate aggro and go control, too much control, you start to hate control and go aggro. I like playing both but the meta is aggro hunter so I am currently playing Big Spell Mage and Dragon/OTK priest. The question is, can Team 5 properly balance the playing field between aggro, midrange and control?

Playrates can't really be balanced. If one deck is considered "the best" by winrate, according to sites like HSreplay, many people will rush to play it. You can make use of that and play a counter, until statistics prove you are on the right track, and the majority plays that instead. Balance should not be about popularity.

The bigger issue is that matchups have become more polarizing over the years, meaning that certain decks have a very high chance to win/lose against specific other decks. Actual balance would require that neither strategy promises very high winrates, not the fake balance of a rock-paper-scissors meta where your success depends on how many good matchups you get in a row. At least that might get fixed with the rotation of so many decisive cards.

I was going to reply something very similar.

You can just play something like Odd Hunter, or a faster Midrange version. About as straightforward as they get. Also, I had a Shaman quest today and aksed the game what would be the best deck for me with my very limited collection - turned out it was a burn deck with Spirit of the Frog, a Doomhammer, two Lava Burst and two Rockbiter Weapon. I would have never made such a deck myself, but In about 30 minutes, I had won 5 games and was done with my 30 Shaman cards...

If you keep seeing heavy control decks that do nothing but stalling, play something like Mecha'thun. That's what it's there for after all, and in Druid, it doesn't even take all that long to end games. Not exactly face deck, but the more appropriate counter.

 I don't think an expansion about old themes is indicative for a lack of ideas. There are other instances that I found more alarming, like the "new" Classic cards added last year.

But mechanics is one thing, having fun while playing the game is another, and ultimately the one that matters more. Whatever people say about the new cards not being flashy enough like Death Knights and such, it's more important that you enjoy turning on the game for a few games instead of saying "oh, not this crap again". And I'd wait at least until the third expansion this year to say whether their plan for this year was the right direction.

I don't think Hearthstone is about to die soon, and I hope it won't be for many years to come, but I personally think the game needs to improve significantly, and faster than it has over the last few years to keep it that way.

Game modes, quality of life improvements, reward systems, balancing for cards and classes, communication and interaction with the fanbase, are all areas where the game can and should improve. After 5 years, I think they need to try a little harder to get a new generation of players interested in the game, and the lack of visible effort to improve, at least until recently, is the bigger issue in my opinion, than a lackluster expansion. The problem isn't that the game is losing players, but that it loses more than it gains. And I don't believe the reason is Hearthstone being an "old" game, but that it fails to create the buzz and initial sense of wonder and amazement for people who try the game out in 2019 compared to 2014-2016.

The bitter, jaded, cynical gamers will say that it's all Activision Blizzard just trying to milk the dying cow at this point, but I know they have talented and dedicated people working on the game, and as long as they and the publisher genuinely care about the project, it'll be doing fine. Things could be better, but I'd just wait and see where the Year of the Dragon takes us. I am a bit on the pessimistic side myself, but I want to believe I'm wrong.

Quote from Kaladin >>

 6-mana "summon a 5/5 and two random legendaries" isn't good enough for you?

 Change it to the actual card text: 6 mana, requiring a lackey on board, granting you a 3 mana spell that requires a Preparation in your hand, and the legendary being a discover in a class with many legendaries you don't want to discover. And again, I'm not saying it's not good enough, but I disagree with people thinking this will break the game.

Quote from OneTrickPony >>

 Yea I just edited more stuff in, I misread.

Nobody is talking about winning the game yet (as was the case with shudderwock), but the crazy tempo this provides is insane. Think about it as a 9 mana card. It can be an 11/11 rafaan for 9. It can be 5/5 draw 3 and play them. 9 mana 5/5 discover a legendary summon 2. Or a 9 mana5/5 draw like 6? 

All of these woulf be insane 5* cards and would see play. You can *choose* all these options from a matchup. 

 I'm not even seeing it as a 9 mana card. I will even consider it so that the treasure is likely activated with Preparation. But even as a 7 mana card (I think the chance for a Lackey surviving is very slim), while indeed powerful, it still is a Rogue card. A class that only survives on stuff like Vanish, Backstab and Fan of Knives; a class that struggles to stay alive against most decks that put consistent pressure on the board, and has few means to stay strong in the lategame. Also a class I wouldn't want to discover a legendary minion from, except for Tess maybe.

Togwaggle can make for some very impactful turns, I'm not denying that. But I can't see him as the auto-include legendary that will win you the games with the weaknesses that Rogue has.

I'm not criticizing the card for being weak. I'm just saying, pulling this off is harder than it sounds, and the results are not as consistent and predictable as they may seem. Maybe I'm all wrong and this is the new The Caverns Below, but so what... I'm just saying what I think, and I think the reactions here are mostly unjustified.

Quote from OneTrickPony >>

Quote from Dunscot >>

I really don't get the hype, that people already call for a nerf.

Not saying the card is weak, but Rogue is still by far the weakest class when it comes to survival, outside of shenanigans with Spectral Cutlass, and Togwaggle will likely not be played before Turn 7, if you even draw it. And even with Preparation, you have to hope for the treasure to work out as intended, whether you are aiming for Zarog's Crown or Wondrous Wand. There is a fair amount of randomness involved either way.

People talk as if you only need this card to win games automatically...

 

 

 You can *choose* the treasure.

 Yeah... so?

You chose your treasure, and what comes out of the treasure is random. You discover a legendary, or you draw one card from your deck multiple times, or your draw three cards that will get reduced to 0 or you pick the kobold and get random legendaries.

Either option may not do what you hope it does. It's far from "I win".

I really don't get the hype, that people already call for a nerf.

Not saying the card is weak, but Rogue is still by far the weakest class when it comes to survival, outside of shenanigans with Spectral Cutlass, and Togwaggle will likely not be played before Turn 7, if you even draw it. And even with Preparation, you have to hope for the treasure to work out as intended, whether you are aiming for Zarog's Crown or Wondrous Wand. There is a fair amount of randomness involved either way.

People talk as if you only need this card to win games automatically...

Read up on what goes to the Hall of Fame, craft what you don't open from your packs, and aside from that, don't bother with last years meta. Unless it's for academic purposes, in which case I'd just read some of the Data Reaper Reports on VS.

Since Witchwood, Even and Odd decks were half the meta for the entirety of the last year, which is why Genn Greymane and Baku the Mooneater, along with all "Even" and "Odd" condition cards from Witchwood get prematurely added to the Hall of Fame. Boomsday Project and Rastakhan's Rumble had very low impact, and almost all decks were largely if not entirely based on Year of the Mammoth cards.

With the upcoming rotation, pretty much all current decks, except maybe Midrange Hunter, will disappear entirely, and Standard will be a very different game from what it is now.

If I'd return to the game at this point, I'd just get the cards I can craft for free, play casually for two weeks, and try to get a decent amount of Gold for packs from the next expansion, Boomsday Project and Rastakhan's Rumble. I personally have a feeling that Boomsday will be strongest set overall after the rotation, but I might be wrong on this one.