Hearthpwn

These days both Standard and Wild seem quiet broken and power creep is making a lot of old cards useless. Classic is good as it is, but not so exciting for most players. So what other kind of Formats could we introduce to Hearthstone? Here are some thoughts:

1: There once was a Tavern Brawl where you would have three old Expansions and you could only use cards from these. Because of this limited cardpool the games felt fresh and never broken. It would be great to have a rotating Format (would call it REMIX) with this exact rule - three old Expansions to build decks from. Every Standard Expansion Cycle we get a reroll of the Expansions in the pool, maybe one remains, two get replaced. Also there could be promotional events and deals where you would get packs from these exact Expansions.

2: Another idea is to have a different kind of Classic Format, where the devs would pick one or two old (or recent) Expansions and downgrade their power level so that they would compare with the power level of Classic (would call it BALANCED) and be played in their own seperate mode, just like Classic. For example Barrel of Monkeys would cost 4 mana in this format. Rush and card draw would either be removed from some cards or come at a premium price and many more such adjustments. Then you can play these Expansions as if they came out in the first year of Hearthstone, much slower gameplay, more board focused, still unique. Could also rotate.

3: The other way around would also work - to upgrade the power level of old Expansions and to make them their own Format, just like Standard.

Let me know how you like these or if you have different ideas. I would really be happy to see new Formats and a more relaxed/balanced gameplay.

Quote from Screwjank >>

My main gripe with this list is that Prince Taldaram does see some play in combo decks as a cheaper alternative to Faceless Manipulator. I'd argue that Prince Valanar is the least playable out of the 3 Princes.

HSReplay says it's in 0.1% of decks and has a deck winrate of 24,1% within the last 14 days. That's the reason it is on the list. But it is actually the card I like least when it comes to my re-designs. I should have made it an option to Silence or not to Silence - like "then choose to Silence it." and two options showing up on the screen - instead.

Quote from Tango1232 >>

Giving a good effect on top of the card effect is not "improving" a card, it's lazy and in a consistency viewpoint it doesn't make sense, aside from flooding the card text.

My thought was: how can I make these cards (kind of) playable WITHOUT changing them completely or inventing new custom cards? I wanted to keep the original stats, because I find it interesting what it would take to make them be playable at these exact costs! And for the most part I also tried to NOT give them any broken effects, because THAT would be lazy. Imagine me giving Millhouse the ability "Manathirst (10): Your spells cost (0) this turn instead." or just suggesting they should revert the Echo Mechanic for Glinda ....

Quote from Tango1232 >>

Temporus acting as a self full heal on top of it's effect is dumb, doesn't fit with the card and it's just a lazy and unengaging way of buffing a card

Would you be more ok with Temporus fully healing both players? Also thought about that. Then it would fit the flavor more: He would soft-reboot the game and then give both players a chance to strike. Otherwise, how would you buff the card? Or would you say he is just not redeemable?

Quote from Tango1232 >>

Toki being a 0 5/5 on turn 1 it's not fun to deal with, aside from being stupidly unbalanced (and losing your 5th turn is NOT a good consequence of having her in your deck).

The first version of Toki is actually more like a different card then a rework and more of a thought experiment: how could you design a time traveling card? It's not to be taken too seriously. Even though I don't think it would be THAT broken.

Quote from Tango1232 >>

Hallazeal has +2 spell damage on top of his effect, again, adding a good effect on top of the other effect is lazy and not a real buff, besides the card doesn't even need a buff.

 HSReplay says it's in 0% of decks and has a deck winrate of 33,3% over the last 14 days.

Quote from Tango1232 >>

The one card i do like is Cho'Gall, but even with that effect it still would not see play, too expensive for the cost and warlock is not known for having expensive spells to use, aside from the card also being powercreeped by Bloodbloom, which was nerfed for breaking wild

Cho'gall I actually like a lot how I re-designed it. The other options would have been, that ALL your spells cost mana instead of health this turn - which would be broken - or that his original effect carries over to your next turn, like with Tour Guide - which on the other hand is not strong enough. I do think that he could see play like I designed him. But I also do appreciate your opinion, because that is one answer to my thought experiment: they still would not be good enough like this.

INTRO: As all of you will know, there are so many old Legendaries that either always have been bad or are bad in today's state of Hearthstone. So I looked up HSReplay to find the currently WORST Legendaries in the game (I do go strictly by the list). I tried to come up with ways to make them more playable (in Wild and also if they were to be put into Standard right now) without always just changing stats. Because most of the time, when there are buffs, the current design team only goes the easy route and adds or substracts a few stats on a card. I think that is very lazy. Also it would be more challenging if I need to re-design the card instead of just making it cheaper.

So let me know your thoughts on my re-designs. Would these cards see play now? Would you change them differently?

Cho'gall is on the very bottom of Hearthstone right now, but also easy to fix. Let's just give him twice the effect. This leaves room for combo potential and also he is a two headed ogre, so it fits flavorwise:

Icehowl has Charge but can not go face .... let's change that in a non-broken way that keeps in mind what was originally intended:

For Millhouse Manastorm I had many ideas, but stuck with combining his old and new design. Originally he was a 2/2 that should give you a spell called MEGA-BLAST!!!, which was 10 mana and would deal 5 damage to all enemies. So I updated him, that now you always want to have 10 mana when playing him:

For Harbinger Celestia I also went through many versions, always trying to keep in mind what was inteded while still making it somewhat playable. Now it is treated as Mirror Entity when played (therefore I needed to change the cost) and keeps being a Secret until the start of your next turn. So when your opponent does not play a minion, the Secret triggers at the start of your turn and summons Harbinger Celestia with an upside:

With Prince Taldaram there was not much design space, so I tried to just give it a fitting bonus effect that is also ok for the cost:

Glinda Crowskin was actually good as long as echoed cards could be reduced to 0. Now it seems like it sees no play at all, so I gave it a bonus that seemed helpful for what it wants to do and should still not interfere with the current version of Echo:

Troggzor the Earthinator has a powerful effect, but only if it sticks, so maybe this version would see some play:

Octosari was really hard to improve, especially with it's octopus design and animation that would pull the cards from the top of your deck. Thought about giving it Taunt, but was not sure if this was enough, so instead I got inspired by it's artwork, where it is seemingly appearing out of nowhere and raising havoc. So I added a familiar effect that would make it more flexible:

Anub'arak has an interesting design, but does not have any real impact when played in the late game. So I made him a more defensive card without pushing too far:

Hallazeal the Ascended does not seem too bad at first, but healing alone is just not good enough, so ...:

Mekgineer Thermaplugg was also a hard card to balance. First I just wanted to give it the ability to spawn a Leper Gnome whenever any minion dies, but that would be far too broken with Defile, so I had to tune back:

For Soggoth the Slitherer I maybe should have reduced the mana cost too, but at least this new combination of Keywords makes it a lot better:

For Sherazin, Corpse Flower I had the idea, that it would also always attack when it is revived, but in the end thought this would be too strong. So I just changed the condition of revival:

For Toki, Time-Tinker I came up with two versions. One that actually travels through time and another one, that more resembles the original design of the card:

Good old Temporus does not really seem redeemable, so I added one thing that still could help to carry you through the hard phase:

In the end I could still add to the list for a while, but I will finish here. Hope you had some fun :)

Quote from Anarchy1 >>

And which questline does see play in wild? I play nothing but wild and quest decks are very rare while big priest is everywhere 

That's the point. They were so strong, that they needed to be nerfed over and over again. One even got banned and is not safe to unban still in it's current form. The Warlock, Hunter and Warrior Questlines were always totally degenerated and still are. Also would you rather face a Big Priest or a Questline Priest? I'm still more against facing the Questline. But that's only my personal opinion.

As I said, I don't think, that Legendaries should win the game on their own, but they certainly should feel better then playing a Common. They are most expensive (in dust and least likely to open in packs) so you should definitly get more value and bigger plays. To make it balanced there should of course be a flexibility with the other rarities. Also that you can use the other rarities twice is actually a big bonus for them already.

What I agree with, is that low mana value Legendaries are scary in that sense. They certainly need to be more balanced then high end ones. I think that low mana cards in general need to be tuned down more. They are already too strong for the price, no matter the rarity.

For Thori'belore I think it doesn't matter if you are able to consistently revive it two times. It still feels too weak as it is. So they messed up the balance again (if they nerfed it before).

I also do struggle with Big Priest in Wild sometimes. Yet it needs a while to get going and is still fair compared to questlines (which are the only cards that I really can't stand).

I can understand that people would dislike Catrina Muerte and Big Priest in general. Still I think she actually does what Legendaries are made for: to give you a LEGENDARY payoff! It might be a frustrating card in certain archetypes, yet it was never broken in it's old state.

Legendary cards are the highest rarity and should feel like something with a high impact and the opponent should feel like "How do I deal with this?". For example in comparison: why print Thori'belore the way it is? It just does not feel strong enough and Warrior really could need some help. When you play it, your opponent only feels "Whatever".

Of course Legendaries also should not play the game by themselves (#questlineswereamistake). But that's not what Catrina does. Her effect only goes off at the end of the turn, so the opponent has a whole turn to find a way to deal with her. If Big Priest ever dominates the meta again, then people need to tech in Silence and Transform effects. As I said, maybe it's frustrating, but by far not broken, you can deal with it, if you expect it to appear in your matches.

Also Catrina is actually a different card now with her effect changed. I don't like this kinds of reworks. Then just don't put in the Core Set instead of changing the card.

You're right. Sorry, corrected it. Really did think it would cost 3 before.

Hello there! The new Core Set for the next Hearthstone year just got announced and I was actually quiet excited what they would change this time! Sadly I'm not all too happy with the result. Partly because they changed some cards too much - in my humble opinion.

Even though the game has changed over the years and we need stronger cards for the Core Set to make an impact, I believe that there should be a consistency in balance and design. Right now some buffs seem strong, some don't do anything, some might be nerfs. That seems silly to say the least. For example:

- For Demon Hunter the buff to Flamereaper (+1 attack from 4 to 5) is quiet strong, but not overpowered. It's just a really good high mana weapon. The two minions that got buffed - Gan'arg Glaivesmith and Wrathscale Naga (+ 1 Health from 2 to 3) - seem also quiet strong when you compare them to old Hearthstone. It's hard for me to evaluate them for today though. And Metamorphosis was changed from 5 to 4 Mana, but it's old nerf (from 5 to 4 damage) was not reverted. I think that is inconsistent. Would have liked to see the nerf reverted too. Legendary cards should be able to feel broken in a way, moreso then other rarities.

- For Druid Witchwood Apple was buffed from 2 to 1 mana and the Treants also got updated from 2 to 1 mana. Still they reduced the number of Treants you receive from three to two. Personally I think they should have stuck with three Treants. Even with the buffs, I don't think two Treants are enough.

Then they changed Ancient of Lore from a 5/5 to a 7/7 and also his healing ability from 5 to 7. Yes, that is a significant buff and yes this card should get more love again. Still here a mana buff would have been better (from 7 to 6 or even 5), that would have made it more playable still. And for consistency reason, why don't they buff Ancient of War too? It has always been more useless then it's brother. Originally they both felt like late game power-houses, today they still feel outdated. A wasted chance to give back to them what they have lost.

Druid of the Claw now changed for the third time and it does not resemble it's former self all too much anymore. Why not just change it back to when it was a 4/4 that could get charge at a cost of 5 mana (or +2 health and taunt). Would that be too broken? It would maybe still be useful like this. Now it is just a bunch of stats - with an increased mana cost even - that will not be played.

Soul of the Forest seems borderline broken at 3 mana now (down from 4).

- For Hunter they added the buffed version of Doggie Biscuit to Core and I always thought this card is way too strong for 2 mana, The design (especially since the buff) has been pushed. In old times this would have been a 4 mana card. I just don't like it. Cards like this don't leave much room for other cheap cards to improve, or otherwise they get REALLY broken.

- I could go on with the other classes and the neutrals, but I think you get my point. Also was shocked that they actually NERFED Catrina Muerte!! Yes cutting her cost from 8 to 7 would be a good change, but now she ONLY resurrects Undead type minions instead of ANY .... I played her back in the day in my control/big Priest decks and the point was to get ANY cool big guy back. Now most of them are out of the picture because they are not Undead. So I think this is actually the worst change they've made.

Let me know your thoughts on my take and the new Core Set plus it's changes!