Hearthpwn

Couldn’t agree more about all of the above. 

On rotation, Prince Renathal and Theotar, the Mad Duke should be unnerfed to shake up the meta. It would be great to stem the barage of hyper-agro and combo decks out there and encourage more complexity within the meta.

Zilliax on steroids!

Makes sense- thought it might operate like the 4/4 does but I see the difference in wording now. Thanks.

Does anyone know if it is intentional that Cenarion Hold does not trigger both effects from Wildheart Guff hero power?

Agree

I'd have to agree that it appears "weak[er]" on face value, but await to be pleasantly surprised at launch. As for "boring", highlander dek styles open up entirely new strategies that breaks the boredom of conventional deckbuilding and would have to disagree with you. This expac will set a great basis for a variety of play styles over next year also, just as year of the Dragon did.

I'm very glad that Blizz did not feel the need to powercreep exponentially this expac, instead, trying to create more dynamic mechanics to add excitement and value (excavate) instead of ramping up stats on cards. This model of release is a lot more sustainable and less likely to break metas creating boring interactions (at least in Wild- no comment on standard). If Blizz maintains this style then they have a better basis for development than previous years.

As for the "broken" cards- yeah, there are a few powerful looking cards that will need to be brought into check, but there always is. Reno looks crazy, for example. Bottom line is, "underwhelming" is good for creating variation in gameplay, encouraging broader deckbuilding varieties and having a more equitable meta.

I find Taunt minions work as well as spell disruption (Loatheb, for example). Freeze is commonly used to stop hero from attacking, and Dirty Rat can sometimes knock Guff out of their hand. Some combination of the above should give you an edge but like the previous post says, identifying what you find problematic will guide your counter choices.

Excavate classes all have a third legendary in the form of the reward, anyway. Plus they can use ALL other legendaries, bar one (Reno).

not exactly like they are missing out.

Lol. Enough said.

Potentially add Embiggen, Azsharan Gardens, Jungle Giants.

I think he's banking on a strategy where you draw and dump your deck very fast, but I agree with you that it's oddly placed. 

Easy fix- add E.T.C., Band Manager and put her in.

Every class needs a redesign to refresh the game. Powercreep has made certain interactions too OP (mana ramp, cheat and refresh, huge burst damage, large AoE, crazy draw) and all classes should be redesigned to have 'specs' in accordance with their playstyles, much like DK with its rune system.

All classes could have their specs--Druid for example can have Feral/Guardian (armor and attack), Restoration (nature and healing) and Balance (arcane and combo) and cards can be designed specifically to those specs. This way, there are better design parameteres so that 'accidental' OP combos arise and the designers have more freedom to make interesting and weird win conditions.

This way, the advantages of significant card draw, armor gain, restoration, mana ramp wont all be available to each Druid, and specific elements can be attributed to a playstyle of each spec. Ramp could be associated with Resto, Armor gain with Feral, Spell damage with Balance and even hero powers can be updated to be more relevant, for example Shapeshift (Druid) can change between specs mid-game, allowing for cards from other specs to be played.

Same can obbiously be made for other classes too, based off the WoW specs and talent trees. In essence, the design team softly work by these 'standards' anyway, they just don't formally introduce them into the game and as a result, the yarns about 'class identity' all become invalidated with each powercreep expansion that is launched.

Standby for the neutral Reno card that will no doubtedly be additional highlander support. Although, two singleton cards (if strong enough) are generally sufficient payoffs to craft highlander decks-- Take Uldum era decks for example-- Zephrys the Great was alone a reason to not have duplicates. Some decks utilised Dragonqueen Alexstrasza but she fell out of favor after the nerfs, and many of the class-based highlander cards were average at best (Finlay and to some extent Elise, who saw limited play).

The real trick with highlander is making do with all the other cards available and creating interesting interactions with what you can. Usually the power is in pairings of cards making 'mini-combos' in fun and creative ways and gives one a chance to use a plethora of cards that would otherwise not be 'optimal' enough in heavily adjusted decks. When you get the hang of this kind of deckbuilding style, highlanders are very fun, opening up and entirely different playstyle that's not limited to a linear, sequential and often boring gameplan that traditional deckbuilding has (particularly in standard).

It may not look like it but this set does have lots of support for singleton archetypes. Anything that generates adds value and the potential for 'mini-combos' is a great addition. Examples of this being N'Zoth, the Corruptor, and this set offers the new 'Ogre' package with Kingpin Pud (weaker--definitely--but also highly usable, even with just one copy) and the obvious advantage of E.T.C., Band Manager who can add duplicates of very strong cards. Other interesting cards from the set that are great inclusions in highlander are Flint Firearm, Thunderbringer and Sheriff Barrelbrim (a great tech card) and both would also be good in typical deckbuilding playstyles.

I personally think how they structured the set it great and most cards can be used for traditional or highlander deckbuilding, without even going through the fun pairings from other sets too. Don't write off the highlander playstyle yet, give it a go and see if you enjoy having twice as much variety and deckbuilding options and potentially more interesting and challenging games. I haven't looked back.

What video is this? Does it reveal much about the card?

Reno Jackson is yet to be revealed... Could he be the likely second Mage legendary?