Hearthpwn

Shaman is great vs Zoo if you have a reasonable starting hand. Use Earth Shock to neutralise his Undertaker/Dire Wolf/Spiders/Harvest Golem (Lightning Bolt for Undertaker works too), Spirit Wolves to stall and kill his weak minions, and then Lightning Storm him when he has 3-4 minions on the field (you don't need to start with all of these cards, just some of them). He will run out of steam quickly.

I have the same problem when trying to save an Arena result - it often fails to register and directs me to a blank page.

Otherwise, excellent site, although about 28/30 of the recommended picks are what I would have picked myself, it helps when it comes to the couple of occasions where I am not sure which to pick. More important than the picks IMO is how the tool analyses the style of your deck and breaks down all the different functions for you. It helps to give you a clear direction and strategy before starting your Arena run.

I would pick Toshley. Geddon is too situational and you have to play him at the right moment (i.e. when you have no minions on board that will be killed). As Priest you tend to have board dominance with your sticky minions and mind control, and will likely be hurt more by Geddon's effect than your opponent.

Geddon only helps you if you are behind in terms of minions on board, but that's not the place you should be in when playing Priest. As Priest your minions should be more than capable of killing opposing minions while still staying alive.

Lightning Shield seems overcosted when Noble Sacrifice costs 1 mana, deals two damage to the attacker and protects the original target from damage.

Purge is greatly inferior to Earth Shock. Even if it were Overload 1 it would still be worse than Earth Shock, since your silence will most likely be wasted (your enemy can easily play around it by summoning a minion with Battlecry or a minion with no effect). The 50% chance of dealing a measly 1 extra damage doesn't make up for the disadvantage.

I support any idea that allows Blizzard to earn more money from the sales of inconsequential cosmetic stuff so that they can lower the prices of things that actually matter in gameplay (e.g. card packs).

Very good ideas. I like Tesla Coil in particular (but don't like the misspelling of "affect" :P). Astral Spirit is OP - its stats are as good as vanilla so it should at least cost 6 mana for the effect it gives.

Here's my attempt at coming up with some unique hero powers:

1.Spy: Look at the next card in your opponent's deck, then choose whether to shuffle the deck.

This might seem rather weak since it doesn't affect the board, but it allows you to anticipate your opponent's moves (if you don't shuffle) or delay him from drawing a useful card (if you shuffle), which is well worth 2 mana IMO. I can see this being VERY annoying since your opponent will be left in suspense as to what card you shuffled away.

2. Spiked Armor: The next time your hero is attacked, deal two damage to the attacker.

This can stack - e.g. if used when a previous instance of Spiked Armor is still active, you will do two damage the next two times your hero is attacked, and so on. Also, unlike Explosive Trap, the damage is applied AFTER the enemy character attacks, so it won't prevent an attack.

3. Overflow: Give a friendly minion "Overflow: Whenever this minion attacks an enemy minion whose health is less than this minion's attack, deal the excess damage to the enemy hero."

I'm trying to decide if this would be OP. In theory it shouldn't be - you are paying two mana to make a minion 100% efficient when attacking (basically never wasting its attack value no matter what it attacks). The effect is still limited by the attack value of your minion, the health of the defending minion, and the health of your own minion.

In fact, upon consideration I think it might be underpowered, since most of the time your minions can trade efficiently without the need for this. It only comes in handy when faced with taunt minions.

Quote from nonnonx »

As i wanted to point out, it may be disappointing for you, i did not expected more from those cards. 
In fact i did not expected most of the thing posters here said people were expecting.

This thread is about what the majority view was when the cards were first announced, though, not your own personal expectations. The point is to consider the ways in which the prevailing wisdom turned out to be wrong. If you look at the announcement threads for the Hunter cards, you will find that they were received with great fanfare.

I am curious to find out what class appeals the most to newbies, and whether that changes as players get more experience.

My favourite class when I started out was Paladin. He was very straightforward to use and I found Consecration (a card you get early) to be super cool. This was, of course, before I levelled my Mage to level 10 and discovered the existence of Flamestrike.

Now, I don't really have a favourite class and alternate between multiple classes. I get bored when playing the same class for too long. If I was forced to choose, it would probably be Mage because of her versatile hero power, cheap removal, powerful secrets and freeze minions.

Quote from VeiledSyn »

Even if his attack is 'nerfed' to below 7, that's almost a bonus moving him out of BGH range... If they do anything it will probably be a health reduction to 5 or a 1 mana increase. Making him a 7/5 ensures hes still vulnerable to BGH and able to clear other large minions worthy of his 7 mana cost, while still being vulnerable to many spells and minions.

I don't think it is a bonus for him to become immune to BGH. BGH is a lousy card that people are forced to play only because Dr Boom is so common nowadays in non-aggro decks. I think it would be better for the meta if Dr Boom were no longer a valid BGH target. It would make BGH less of an auto-include and something you really only use to counter control decks. 

Plus, if his health were nerfed to five, you won't really need a BGH to kill him. Lots of 5- and 6-drop minions can trade with him. I personally think that reducing his attack to 6 will be more of a nerf, since it stops him from trading with the numerous 7-health legendaries like Antonidas, Velen, Neptulon, Malorne, Toshley, Sneed's, Mal'Ganis, etc.

Quote from Adeimantuss »

Why wasn't Loatheb nerfed then? Not exactly a forgone conclusion.

Loatheb hasn't been nerfed since his prevalence in decks was because his effect was unique. With the new anti-spell minions in GvG, Loatheb is becoming less common nowadays (though that is largely also due to the decline of Miracle).

Dr Boom's prevalence is entirely due to the fact that he is severely undercosted for what he does. But I don't think Blizz should increase his mana cost to 8, since that would make him compete in the crowded 8-drop space. Instead they should nerf his body to a 6/5. He would still be a strong card, with one more stat than a vanilla War Golem (if you count the bots), plus the upside of an average of 2 damage per bot.

If you are playing Handlock then the only question is: Do you find yourself losing games because you are using Sen'jin instead of Sludge Belcher? If so, then you should just buy the first two wings. The rest of the wings are irrelevant to you unless you decide to play a different deck.

The problem is that new players might not be that good at Arena. If they are averaging 2-3 wins per run, they will only earn enough gold to buy a card pack every three runs or so. It will take a long time to buy a sufficient number of Classic card packs.

Quote from nonnonx »

Feign death and Steamwheedle Sniper are pretty good in the spark's control hunter, this is way better for a control hunter than what existed before, you can not like it but it's still a viable deck to be legend. 

The problem is that vanilla face Hunter still has a higher win rate than Spark's control Hunter. I've tried both; face Hunter wins more consistently for me. And even if you want to play control, other classes still do it way better (see: Priest and Warrior).

Sure, the cards might have made control Hunter more "viable", but it remains an inferior choice to other possible options, and that is what makes the cards disappointing.

Sigh, there are just so many illogical people around who cannot count properly.

"OMG Unstable Portal is OP because you can get a 1 mana Piloted Shredder or 3 mana Cairne!"

Actually, you already paid 2 mana for whatever card you got by playing Unstable Portal. So in the best case scenario, the mana reduction is only one (and sometimes it will be zero or negative). Yes, it sometimes allows you to play a strong card ahead of the curve, but Druids are guaranteed to be able to do that their Innervates, which no one is screaming to be nerfed.

Also, keep in mind that you lose tempo everytime you play Unstable Portal and cannot instantly play the card you got that turn (you effectively passed your turn 2), so it is only fair that you gain back tempo when you eventually do play the card you got.