Hearthpwn

 It also depends on which class they're added to, cheap spells that replace themselves are better in "spells matter" classes, so Mind Vision, for instance, would probably be slightly better in mage and rogue. Especially rogue, as it already has synergy with stealing effects, and is a weapon class that can use the occasional deadly poison and similar weapon dependent cards. So yeah, I think preemptive strike at 1 mana would be a very decent rogue card, it fits both playstyle and flavorwise.

Espionage still needs draw a card I think, maybe like a reverse Tracking? Look at top three and pick one? Would also be a fun rogue card, although pretty powerful with Auctioneer and stuff.

Espionage is horrible, needs to draw a card or some additional effect to be remotely playable. Not affecting the board, life total or hand is a bad place to be. Preemptive strike is a more expensive mind vision. Strategic attack is an interesting idea, but seems a bit underpowered, maybe two cards akin to thoughtsteal? The concept is cool though, and a design space that hasn't been explored at all.

I'd like to see the shapeshift theme explored more, Savagery and Savage Combatant is a good start. Print new beasts, make boomkin druid a thing and so on. Just nerfing the combo without giving any compensation on other cards would be stupid. Druid should be rebalanced, not nerfed. There are plenty of venues to be explored, but the strength of the combo is currently holding these back. The result is a very boring and one-dimensional class. Every other class have viable builds in vastly different playstyles, for Druid it is mainly a question of choosing a low or midrangey curve before you finish with the combo.

The combo makes druid such a boring class, both to watch, play and play against. It isn't too badly overpowered per se, but seriously limits the number of viable druid builds. I'd like to see a viable spellpower build, a viable pure ramp build, a viable beast build and more, but playing this requires me to play a version that i just worse than the midrange dorks into combo build (alternatively some aggro dorks into combo). Some rebalancing for increased diversity would be welcome.

There's never a middle road with some of you guys. Either a card is OP or unplayable, either dragon decks are our new overlords or they're completely unviable.

My first impression: Dragon decks look fine, as a different tweak on druid they're about on par with some of the other ramp routes. The strength of this deck is its ramp anyway, which big dudes you play is not make or break. This particular card is very solid in the right deck, as a lot of other 5drops are.

Quote from StyyleB »

double mind control? double light bomb? double holy fire?  This deck will encounter so many dead cards in many situations.  

This has always been the Priest's weakness, and this deck is not a perfect solution. It is simply a slightly different approach and not that reliant  on 2 card combos. The cards you mention are never as dead as a CoH without support for instance. Light bomb is rarely dead, it is perfectly fine as overcosted 1 for 1 removal: Been using it against Azure Drakes in rogues 1 for 1, it is a very good answer to Doctor Boom, and it is pretty good with sheep. I was actually surprised by the number of times I am hoping to draw that exact card. Holy fire combines both aspects of the deck's game plan in 1 card, even though I admit it is slightly overcosted. Mind Control is the card that is most often dead of these three. But I have been trying other late game plans such as Boom, Sneed's, Ysera and so on. And I found that Mind Control rarely is more dead than any of these would have been. It is always a 2 for 1, and is invaluable in the late game against other priests, warriors, Paladin and handlocks (even though pesky Jaraxxus makes me lose anyway :P)

Two important points:

-This kind of deck is pretty good at setting up 2 for 1 or better, as 1 threat simply is not enough to threaten our life total. It is often correct to just wait it out, heal for 2, drop a couple of life points a turn, as this is nowhere near fast enough to win. Eventually the opponent will commit more to the board, and the Novas, Bombs, sheep, MCT, pyro and shadow madness are that much better.

-Yes, some cards are situational. But the longer I can prolong the game, the greater the chance of the correct situations coming up. If I played a midrange, curvebased deck I could not play this many narrow cars. However, as I am stalling, healing and removing early game minions I can often simply wait for the timing to be right. This can be tricky to pull off against decks like mech mage, as they flood the board with sticky minions and toughness>power. But generally speaking, situational cards scales well with the number of situations a game contains.

After much frustration with the priest early game I decided to just skip it altogether. In fact, this deck does not have much of a mid or late game either, it is almost purely reactive. If I can accumulate cards by doing nothing, fine: I will heal for 2 and pass, occasionaly playing a dork to avoid burning cards. If the opponent has 2 or less power on board it is usually possible to ignore it altogether as he can never win. 3 or 4 power is a horribly slow clock, and so on. The deck wins by running the opponent out of threats, then winning by fatigue or the last man standing, which will often be a 3/3 or so. I have managed a decent win rate against Warrior Control, mid range Paladin, rogue, shaman and hunter in all of its forms. The other matches are usually pretty even, win rate depending on how well my draw lines up. Having stabilized this deck mainly consists of either 1 for 1 removal, heal or 2 for 1 cards.  Any deck with lord Jaraxxus is pretty much an auto loss though, seriously...It's borderline impossible to beat that one if it's not cheated out with voidcaller.

It is important to use the right removal for the right minion. Against rogue, for instance, it can be preferable to use holy smite+pyromancer rather than SW:P on the 3/3s if it means saving your SW:P for the Violet Teacher. Against warrior I almost always prefer Holy Fire over SW:D on 5/5s, even if SW:D is more mana efficient and it means I won't get the heal from fire.

Anyway, here's the list, I do not claim to have solved the meta, but once in a while it can be fun to play draw go rather than trying to match other decks midrangey curves card for card.

It is a fun card, I will definitely mess around with it. That's good enough to warrant a place in the set for me. Every single card can't be a tournament staple or a vanilla arena dork. Yay for diversity.

Blizzard wants Hearthstone to be about interaction, creature combat and trading of resources. Undertaker created some very uninteractive boardstates at the very beginning of the game, no possible trades, no answers on curve. Personally I find it unfun both to win with and to lose to those kind of openings. If I wanna play solitaire there are plenty of better single player games than Hearthstone.

I don't get this card at all. How often is a shieldmasta targeted by spells compared to how often 3 toughness minions sits on the board? The 3 power is key in tons of situations (also on offense), the untargetability is at best narrow.

Quote from sherr1 »

Quote from Galemathias »

Control warrior consists of defense and roleplayers. War Golem/Core Hound are not roleplayers, they don't have a function in any matchup other than being a big body. The Juggernaut has a very specific function, which is quite good in some matchups, in the others it is a passable minion, much like Harrison Jones and friends. It's possible that I would rather have a narrow 6/5 for 6 than a narrow 8/8 for 9 in my deck. Testing will tell.

I do agree - cards should help you against some matchup. But you can easily say that Cairne is better in any matchup - vs agro he is 4/10 which is waaay better than 6/5, and against control they need to spent like x2 more card to kill him and this is value which is far more important in control matchup.

Yeah, Cairne isn't going anywhere. I see this card primarily as a way to streamline/lower my manacurve. So Alex will be cut in testing. Stronger effect vs 3 mana cheaper, frankly it's hard to say. If Alex needs to stay I' prolly pass on  the Juggernaut, it's enough of a nonbo in enough situations, and I don't think I'll need 2 of this kind of effect.

Control warrior consists of defense and roleplayers. War Golem/Core Hound are not roleplayers, they don't have a function in any matchup other than being a big body. The Juggernaut has a very specific function, which is quite good in some matchups, in the others it is a passable minion, much like Harrison Jones and friends. It's possible that I would rather have a narrow 6/5 for 6 than a narrow 8/8 for 9 in my deck. Testing will tell.

Thinking about replacing Alex with this. They fill the same role in many ways. Alex is 15 damage minus the damage already done for 9 mana. This is 10 damage in the control matchup for 6. The body is about as relevant as Alex's at its manacost, but earlier drops are relevant in a wider selection of matchups. For lifegain there are better options than Alexstrasza anyway.

I clearly stated that it is untested and from the top of my head, oversights are expected.

First of all: good point on all the hate for big creatures, it may be overkill with the two battlecries+ two siphons.

Secondly, the list is not centered around void terror, he's just another piece of the puzzle. I can see reasons for adding some one drops, but card disadvantage for a small buff is not one of them.

Loot hoarder vs Engineer is a toss up, in my preliminary testing the hoarder will get priority. 2/1 is just more useful than 1/2 against rush decks. He also has slightly better synergy with the rest of the list.

Thalnos is a small investment. His deathrattle is good value with Power overwhelming and (in a pinch) void terror.

In the case of Shadowflame: It's good with Power Overwhelming, Ancient Watcher and to a varying extent: the deathrattle cards. I definitely don't like Hellfire, it kills most of my own minions. 

I may also want to try Cult Master, it fits very well in to the deck.

Anyway, testing will tell. It could be decent, and I'll be sure to try your versions and suggestions too, thanks for the constructive feedback!

Well, I guess the brewmaster is a pet card of mine, he's a perfectly decent 3/2 early, and plays as an additional copy of the Battlecries late. With the Taunt-granters he's a guaranteed extra body to get the buff. It can also, if Im not mistaken, save a minion from Power Overwhelming, making the card pretty bonkers. I probably should playtest him in this one, but he synergizes pretty well with a large chunk of the list.

The Kodo is just a miser's copy to diversify the gameplan, I quite like him to regain boardcontrol against small dudes; killing one immediately and having i a body beefy enough for two more. Reusable with Brewmaster. He is pretty narrow though, therefore 1 copy.

The Void Terrors synergize with all the Deathrattle (Sylvanas is the best one ofc), the Ancient Watcher, and Minions doomed by Power Overwhelming for a hefty bonus. 

This is just a list from the top of my head, so needs testing. Should be a lot of fun.