Hearthpwn

Since it is specific to Golden Legendaries, the idea is to craft those you want before opening packs, so you cannot open a normal version that you don't want anyway, and instead can have any other legendaries.

If you only care about getting any version of the legendaries you want, you are right of course, that it's better to wait and see whether you might open one of those you want, before you craft anything. If you just want to get a specific card from a given set, buying packs instead of crafting is for most cases the better deal.

Since Ben Brode already hinted that Cubelock "might" get nerfed if the deck remains strong, the question isn't if, but when and how, since there is no way in hell the deck will lose enough strength and popularity for that not to happen.

So I predict that the patch arrives somewhere between mid May and early June, and it will hit Possessed Lackey, Voidlord and Doomguard. Lackey will cost more, Voidlord will have less health and might only summon two Voidwalkers, and Doomguard will lose attack and/or gets Rush, but keeps the Battlecry. After that, nobody will play the deck anymore, and since Zoolock also loses a lot, Warlock will be pretty much gone.

After the patch, the actual meta begins: I think Shaman won't do as well as people think, but still keeps a "tier 2" deck. Paladin will be less popular, and Priest will lose too much with Drakonid Operative and thus disappear entirely, together with Druid and Warrior. The strong classes will be Hunter, Rogue and Mage.

This card is great if you don't want to go hollow.

And it's a pretty alright card generally speaking. I am glad Blizzard is still caring about Elementals.

Quote from Routanne >>

I think jeepers is a little tilted... I mean.. calling a 40 dust pack "Average"? 40 dust is the absolute worst you can do, which is far from average. infact, an average pack is around 100 dust.

Edit: What I'm saying is, Jeepers doesn't know the meaning of average, and is seemingly using the word incorrectly to defend blizzard.

Quote from Almaniarra >>

I personally think that miracle archetype limits rogue so much

Quote from hebbe84 >>

Miracle is my favorite deck of all time, but it really limits what cards can be released for rogue

Quote from Dendroid >>

Rogue would be the biggest beneficiary for dramatic archtype shifts if you took out eddy and auctioneer.  Clear the design space and allow the creative side to reflect what rogue should be.

As for the actual topic, the answer really depends on how the meta develops. Rogue has some pretty strong cards and I think it could perform pretty well next expansion. It does not lose too many good cards and does not depend as much on the new set as some other classes, but if the metagame does not change much, Rogue will be in a similar spot as right now. You could say they "need" a good counter strategy or more answers to all the aggressive decks, but I think, it would be better if they benefit from a metagame shift instead of getting busted cards that will be problematic for another year.

People reply to decks and say how they were doing with it. I did just that, only more elaborate, because I think that's more likely to be beneficial to all. Other players get a better idea of how the deck performs, or I get responses that help me play the deck better. I like to put some effort into my comments because I want to contribute.

That's how I roll, "bro".

Not sure if the whole "rush" package is good enough to play this weapon. There should be at least two good targets for the buff. Standalone, it is a bit too weak. Even though weapons with 2 attack are not as useless as they used to be (Stormforged Axe hasn't been used in years), they tend to come with more immediate upsides, like Unidentified Maul, Jade Claws and Blood Razor.

Theoretically speaking, the weapon is quite alright, but in practice, it might not be good enough.

I also find it a bit shameless, that this was likely designed around the time Fiery War Axe was discussed for nerfs, At least it's just a Common.

I tried a very similar deck with Bloodreaver instead of a Blood Imp and 2x Spellbreaker 2x Saronite Chain Gang (didn't see at first that it had Spellbreakers as well) instead of 2x Darkshire Councilman.

The result was... I had one long winstreak from 16 up to 11 (no pun intended), and there it just stopped. My winrate dropped under 50% and after several hours I was back down to 12 with one or two stars left. Got so frustrated that I gave up on trying ladder again.

The main problem I had was that unfavorable matchups came up too frequently, and even in the favorable ones, I oftentimes had no luck with getting a good opening hand, which is critical for this deck to work. Of course, most of my opponents had a designer hand nearly every game. One very fun encounter: A secret mage played a Doomsayer on turn 2, and followed it up with Mana Wyrm and Sorcerer's Apprentice and from there on, his deck was predictable as a calendar. Haven't seen it before or since, but in that one game, it of course decided everything.

As for the matchups in general:

Silver Hand Paladin was actually one of the best, though also the rarest matchup for me. A well timed Despicable Dreadlord ususally wins the game by itself. Murloc Paladin is a good deal worse, since the Murlocs have more health and get out of control faster. Of course, if your opponent plays two Call to Arms back to back, there is little you can do to recover or stay ahead.

Dragon Combo Priest was also relatively easy most of the time. When you play around Duskbreaker in the first three turns by holding back some minions or buffing one above 3 health, and keep their few minions in check, you can usually stay ahead and win over time. Spiteful Priest, however, was much worse. Just not knowing when it's Spiteful Priest makes it a lot harder, and when they highroll on the Spiteful Summoner turn 6 as ordered, you pretty much lose on the spot. Playing around Duskbreaker forces you to play a bit slower, and then you are too far behind past turn 6. Another reason I lost these matches was that every single Free From Amber resulted in an Obsidian Statue. In one such case, both my Spellbreakers were in the last 7 cards of my deck.

I also met 2 Big Priests. Both opened the game with "Well Played" and summoned Barnes into either Statue or Y'Shaarj on Turn 4. Secret Hunter, which I have seen quite often, oftentimes was just the same. Barnes Turn 4; what a fun game. When they don't highroll like a cheater, the matchup is still rather unfavorable, since you can't play around every secret at the same time and are weak to most of them. Playing a Flame Imp on the first turn is ok for Wandering Monster, terrible for Explosive Trap, and even worse for Freezing Trap. Sometimes you need to use a buffing spell to keep the pressure high, and then have to hope it's not Cat Trick. Similar situations occur throughout the entire game. Have fun guessing and losing when guessed wrong. Of course, the Spellstone is always around on Turn 5, where you tend to fall behind so drastically that there is no way of recovering.

A similar matchup, though I would say it's about 50/50, is Secret Mage. Play around Explosive Runes when it's Counterspell, play around Counterspell when it's Explosive Runes. Either guess right on your first turn after a secret was played, or walk right into. Either way, going first with a 1-drop makes a huge difference. A bad hand is mostly fatal. The matchup is certainly winnable, but it is hard to play it strategically. The most scary cards in their deck are Aluneth, since you damage yourself with your minions and hero power so much that they just need to draw into their burn spells, and Primordial Glyph since almost every time I have seen this card, it turned the game in their favor. There are over 30 mage spells in Standard, but they always get one of the three good board clears.

And finally, and this was what broke my back more than anything, there was waaaay too much Control/Cubelock. While not unwinnable, the chances are very slim and when 1 out of 3 opponents plays that deck, there is no way of really making progress. Playing around Defile is somewhat possible, playing around Hellfire as well isn't. And then there is still the Spellstone, some also have teched Spellbreaker in. The best bet is to buff the hell out of an early minion and hope they cannot handle it. Worked for me a few times, but when there is a turn 6 Voidlord and massive healing and no Silence in sight, the game is over.

I will try this version Darkshire Councilman, but I kinda doubt it really goes much smoother. The deck is really strong, and I don't even doubt you can rank up with it quite well. As I said, it worked like a charm for me for quite a bit, but in the end, I couldn't even make it to 10. Now, I might very possibly not be the best player around, I also could have been more patient, and maybe I should play the deck a bit more aggressively (I tend to hold back Doomguards, for example), but I would still say that some luck is required to do well with it.

The dev notes were written so well in-tone, I could hear Ben Brode saying some of these things while I was reading them- excellent job!

I have about 25 wins now, and as expected, the only decks I encounter now are Malygos-decks, mostly Rogue, Warlock, Priest (with Velen) and a few Mages.

Of course, this is no surprise since that's exactly what happened the last three times this Brawl was up. I still really like it for its unique ruleset and dynamic. This is, in my opinion, still one of the most interesting Brawls they ever made. But I wish they just blacklisted Malygos, Alexstrasza and maybe Gadgetzan Auctioneer for this Brawl. It always ends up like this, and there are so many cool decks you could use if it wasn't for these few cards. At least Ragnaros is not around anymore.

Winning with minion-based strategies seems pretty much like a gamble at this point, since everyone runs multiple silences and board clears and other forms of stalling. Turn 2 Murmuring Elemental + Bonemare, followed up by brewmasters and Fungalmancer, really isn't good enough, as I had to find out. 

Either way, I heavily recommend to use Dirty Rat and hope for the best. Even if you don't play against The Essence of Magic, most minions used in this Brawl have Battlecries anyway.

Too bad this is an epic... would have been a great common card as a baseline for many starter decks.

I think this is best as a Murloc and/or Totem. Murlocs with high health are a serious threat as they are more likely to benefit from buffs, and for the few cases where Totem synergy matters, solid minions are also very helpful.

Shaman could actually use many tags simultaneously in Wild. It would reduce the costs of both Everyfin is Awesome and Thing from Below, and it can be drawn from Ice Fishing and The Curator, which can also draw Gentle Megasaur. It even works with Powermace.

Maybe it will just be a vanilla 3/4 that sees no play in the end, but it's is certainly an interesting card.

Hagatha is at least "playable", but this is ass. Getting random spells is pretty strong, I do not deny that. Having this as a permanent effect is indeed threatening. The card is alright, though the battlecry could have been much better for that mana cost, either targeting enemies only or dealing 5 damage.

What really bothers me: Is that really the new "class identity" of Shaman now? Get random spells and see how lucky you get? Pretty much like Casino Mage has been, with Witch's Apprentice being a carbon copy of Babbling Book? Are you serious?!

Not only is this a confession of lack of creativity, it is another "fun" theme for a struggling class which is likely not doing very well. And the worst part is, if it should be doing well, it will make the game so terribly random again. Now they just need to add a super powerful Shaman spell that feels like winning the lottery, like Firelands Portal, and we can all have "fun" winning and losing by dicerolls all over again.

It feels like whenever they run out of ideas, they just add more extremely random stuff that might be fun playing with but feels terrible playing against. I'm REALLY disappointed.

I actually think your opinion is less controversial than saying that old card backs should be purchasable. Either way, never be afraid to state and defend your opinion!

Your model of "earning" old card backs is actually kinda nice, if only too complicated. I think the game could need a few more "achievement"-like things. Getting a number of wins with a specific class per month to earn the card back could be interesting.

Then again, I think card backs are one of the best sort of microstransactions Blizzard could add to the game. Even though I tend to agree with Jim Sterling on why "it's just cosmetics" is a silly and inappropriate response to criticism against microstransactions, card backs are less prestigious and desirable than Hero Skins, since other players also pay less attention to them.

It would be nice to earn card backs somehow, but I also wouldn't have a problem if they offer them for 2,50$ a piece. I think it is a bit sad when playing with a card back from 2014 or 2015 loses its meaning that you have been playing for that long, but other than that, I think players should be able to buy them if they want them.

Quote from ArgentumEmperio >>

1. They have adressed the issue about why they don't want people to be able to buy Wild-specific packs in the past and folks genuinely do make mistakes. Whether it is right or wrong to use the argument of 'people can make mistakes and then its on them, not on the company to do it' ... remember that this is Hearthstone. Folks are not reasonable and when you have as far of a reach of having to deal with millions of people playing your game... even if you have 1% of players buying the wrong packs of 50.000.000 ... 500.000 people is A LOT of money or gold that legitimately should be up for a refund. Then I can easily say that it's better to put them behind a paywall in the Battle.net shop rather than in-game.

Also here's evidence that all people makes mistakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixzVrFpkDeY

2. Giving up on the classic set is far more difficult than people think. After all this is a digital game and you have to include some sort of tutorial of baseline for people. Furthermore as much as the game should feel different between expansions... it's not like Hearthstone has the flexibility of something like MtG. Heroes and coloured-mana are VASTLY different things to try to build cards around and for.

When you got a class, you have to make sure that class stays that class rather than for some reason starts putting hunter cards into their baseline paladin deck or vice versa. Some exchange is good such as with the tri-class cards... but going overboard with that is also bad.

3. And finally... no there isn't. There's a streamer called Kripparian who's been advocating for consistent and drastic changes - in other words more buffs and nerfs more frequently. This is important to note because if a card is underperforming... is it because of the meta, the powerlevel of other cards, the card itself being bad or just because people haven't figured out how to use it? Essentially if one started to buff cards on an as regular level as nerfing them... then you would have to answer all of these questions and make predictions for the next 2 years.

In regards to Warsong Commander that was very much so intentional by them to kill it off because Charge is a problematic mechanic. I disagree with the actual implementation of the nerf but I very much so agree that it had to change rather drastically. All in all the change to the card was surprisingly good not because the card itself is 'good' but rather because if you wish to build a charge deck, now you have a so called 'lord' for it. It doesn't make the card better and it doesn't make it anymore playable but... that's fine as long as it does something and in a charge thematic deck it certainly does.

 

With all of this said tho'... I will make this claim: in regards to a card such as Warsong Commander I'd say it would be interesting to see them extend it's effect to Rush cards as well. Sticking true to the thematics of the card whilst keeping the powerlevel of the card where its supposed to be.
As much as folks hate Ben Brode for saying this... there has to be good and bad cards in cardgames. Just like there has to be Timmy, Johnny and Spike cards respectively the degree of playability of a card is arbitarily defined by it's circumstance. As it stands right now... Warsong Commander could be used by a Johnny player in a casual purely for fun deck. Doesn't make it any better but it does point out that it still has a purpose to serve.

Quote from Nicholasjh >>

 I'm sure it would be a PR and support nightmare if non-wild players bought wild packs. I can understand why they wouldn't allow that.