Hearthpwn

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to start a thread, if one did not already exist, discussing potential candidates for the upcoming Hall Of Fame rotation right before the new "year" starts. Historically, this special rotation seems to have just followed a regular nerf pattern where T5 came to understand that certain cards were meta defining where they used to be flex picks. Each level of rarity has been effected, so I'll list a few and give an explanation to start.

Common: 

• Scavenging Hyena: We have already seen a resurgence of this card that has had serious upside. A 2 mana 2/2 with an effect is by no means broken. However, with the creation of the rush mechanic and the amount of small charge/rush beasts in next years rotation already we will potentially see a nerf or a move out of standard for this card. It will definitely be a powerhouse if any more low cost beasts will instant attack capacity are printed.
• Flame Imp: this card is great in aggressive Warlock. It has always been a staple, and since it matches the self-damaging warlock it isn't really overpowered. But if it is limiting design space it could definitely get the boot. Blizzard has made room before due to dominance of classic cards for strong archetypes. (looking at you Mana Wyrm)
• Honorable Mention for card draw. Maybe one card will see the move, but I highly doubt it. With the creation of Mecha'thun it seems that printing anymore card draw, especially neutral, only helps decks that wish to play it. The decks are extremely non-interactive, and card draw will only carry that play-style further.

Rare:

• Savannah Highmane: Say it ain't so. This one will upset so many people that I'm afraid to include it. Personally I love the card. The "Hunter gets a legendary for 100 dust" meme has been alive before and could very well come back. Highmane is starting to see some play, but will Hunter be able to stay dominant on rotation? If so, this card may be moved.
• Kirin Tor Mage: death to Tempo Mage, enough said. (Although I'd love for it to come back, but the community would rage)
• Divine Favor: This card is near the top of my list for purpose of annoyance alone. It is a huge advantage to draw potentially heavy as a reward for playing out your hand. In Odd this has proven to be a useful to refill an already value oriented deck. If better cards are coming to Paladin, and especially odd, this card may need a rotation to stop the value onslaught of odd paladin.
• Doomguard: This is a maybe. While it isn't disruptive on its own, it can be overbearing with copy effects. If more cube style cards are printed, it may be good to do even more than a standard rotation for this card.

Epic:

• Sea Giant: I think this card has a chance to rotate. It hasn't been meta-defining nor caused any big issues. But the control shell leaving Hearthstone is considerately large and may bring aggro heavily into the picture. Decks may go wider than usual and thus the odds to place a low cost Giant on the field increase for the Sea version. I think Mountain Giant is still safe unless strong control cards are re-introduced for each class on this first expansion of 2019.
• Preparation: I would be sad to see this go, but understand if it did. Prep is added to most Rogue decks and rightfully so. It is extremely powerful and will undoubtedly be a strong tool in a more aggro pirate deck that may resurface after rotation. It has been a long-standing auto include card and one of the few "class power cards" that hasn't been adjusted (actually buffed in early release). Maybe it will finally be too strong to consider keeping in standard?

Legendary:

• I'm going to start by making a hopeful guess that no class legendaries are removed by Hall of Fame. Although they all have defining attributes, T5 would have to create a new classic legendary for a rotating classes' card. This seems like a waste of design space, and the new card would have to be strong enough to hold weight in classic, but weak enough to not overshadow the next expansions cards to come.
• Bloodmage Thalnos: Yeah if card draw is gone from my previous point-this is the one. Bloodmage has proven time and time again to be a must include in any control style deck that has some form of combo. Must include cards are heavily in danger during rotations, because play rate and power are the most viewed statistics that seem to shape balance decisions. 
• Leeroy Jenkins: I may actually cry if this happens. However, I keep mentioning a potential swing in a more "basic aggro" meta emerging with the new year. Must includes will definitely contain Mr. Jenkins in the card pool. It has already been adjusted before, but that won't stop it from being in every face deck ever to exist (if odd is in the parameters). 
• As a final point. I am also going to assume that NO dragon will be removed. The Maly decks can certainly get repetitive, but I think from a lore and creativity perspective each dragon serves a point. 

It was long winded, but let me know what you all think! list a few cards that you think are a likely candidate for the next rotation. Remember the cards have to be in the classic (and I suppose maybe basic) format to move to Hall of Fame. Please keep this topic as all threads exploratory threads are meant to be: a discussion! Play nice and have fun!

Honestly, felt the same at first. After raging against a few Hunter matches I calmed down and just accepted that the game is a tad slower than it was in the past. It is a good thing though. I'll take longer control match-ups where I have a chance versus aggro mirrors all day where top decking wins the game and the opponent emotes to all end.

Quote from Joseph_Turok >>

Quote from Nargacuga15 >>

Quote from scott_philibert >>

Quote from Joseph_Turok >>

Welcome ! 

First things first , go ahead and get all 9 classes to level 10 so you unlock all the basic cards.

Only Buy Classic ,  Witchwood, Boomsday and & RR packs since they aren’t rotating in April.

After that don’t stretch yourself thin. Only play 1-2 classes until you get your bearings. It usually takes about a week to fully learn the ins and outs of a new deck. 

Stick to what gets you good results , and don’t sweat the losses .  Just have fun !

 

 ok ty working on getting to lv 10 taking awhile hoping I find a class along the way

 NO! If you are able to invest a bit of cash, or in the next 4 months you amass enough gold to buy older packs, BUY OTHER EXPANSIONS. The rotation is going to nuke those cards yes, but a guaranteed legendary in each expansion by 10 packs is HUGE. You could open the legendary pack number 1 and that is free 400 dust to disenchant the old legendary you receive!!!!

This is true if you can afford the winter bundle if it hasn’t disappeared go ahead and snag it as well as the welcome bundle ( since you’ll get a free Dragon Aspect) and a guaranteed classic legend in those 10 packs.  

 Exactly! A 25 dollar investment is HUGE payback right now. Half the price of a title game as well.

Edit: the winter bundle is gone :(

Quote from scott_philibert >>

Quote from Joseph_Turok >>

Welcome ! 

First things first , go ahead and get all 9 classes to level 10 so you unlock all the basic cards.

Only Buy Classic ,  Witchwood, Boomsday and & RR packs since they aren’t rotating in April.

After that don’t stretch yourself thin. Only play 1-2 classes until you get your bearings. It usually takes about a week to fully learn the ins and outs of a new deck. 

Stick to what gets you good results , and don’t sweat the losses .  Just have fun !

 

 ok ty working on getting to lv 10 taking awhile hoping I find a class along the way

 NO! If you are able to invest a bit of cash, or in the next 4 months you amass enough gold to buy older packs, BUY OTHER EXPANSIONS. The rotation is going to nuke those cards yes, but a guaranteed legendary in each expansion by 10 packs is HUGE. You could open the legendary pack number 1 and that is free 400 dust to disenchant the old legendary you receive!!!!

Quote from Deck_Fiend >>

Quote from Nargacuga15 >>

Personally I'd hold off unless you had 2-3 decks that would benefit from adding the card right now, and the data is available to prove it. Rotation is a big time- you really want to have all the dust available that you can. On top of that rotation means more cards in the Hall Of Fame, and that is a direct investment of your dust to amplify some returns. If it was classic legendaries/epics on your mind that's usually a safe bet, but cards getting ready to rotate are mostly not worth it from a budget or casual standpoint. Even on the ranked/hardcore end: You are paying 4 times the amount now you will receive back in 4 months.

 thanks man. I have decided against crafting anything at all for now. might as well hold on to what little dust I have. 

 It is a very hard and held back decision. Trust me even after years of playing the game and being relatively close to completing a strong collection, I still have cards I'd like to make now that are rotating that aren't worth it. You feel it more now, but I swear you'll feel good about holding back come April.

Personally I'd hold off unless you had 2-3 decks that would benefit from adding the card right now, and the data is available to prove it. Rotation is a big time- you really want to have all the dust available that you can. On top of that rotation means more cards in the Hall Of Fame, and that is a direct investment of your dust to amplify some returns. If it was classic legendaries/epics on your mind that's usually a safe bet, but cards getting ready to rotate are mostly not worth it from a budget or casual standpoint. Even on the ranked/hardcore end: You are paying 4 times the amount now you will receive back in 4 months.

Free Legendaries:

One free Death Knight Hero card for playing the prologue in the solo content for Knights of the Frozen Throne.

Logging into Hearthstone after you complete a series of quests should get you a free Loa and its spirits.

Purchasing the welcome bundle guarantees a legendary dragon

Expansion Pack Opening Update:

As a new player, you didn't by chance get notified that within your first 10 packs of each expansion you are guaranteed a legendary. From there on the pity timer returns to maximum 40 packs to guarantee a legendary. For instance, first 10 in classic will net a legendary (guaranteed on top of your dragon if you buy the welcome bundle). From there you will then go to Un'goro as that is the next expansion in our current "rotation".

Quests:

Everyday, you will get one quest once your new account expires all its "catch up quests". Rotate your quest to hopefully roll a class you play or an easily achievable daily quest. All the while, you should be aiming for quests that net 60+ gold. Keep friends in mind or visit this website's "Challenge a Friend" thread to add someone to play and guarantee big rewards and a potential new friend.

Meta:

There's no way to say this easily. You're going to be bad, but being bad doesn't mean that you aren't learning. You will be matched against difficult decks that seem to play really expensive cards and pull off extremely complex combos. Keep grinding and one day you will own them. I recommend getting into the Odd/Even category fast. Those decks seem to be performing well over a long period of time. Otherwise, midrange hunter, zoo warlock, and tempo rogue have been relative staples that experience some good fortune and never truly die as competitive. Either way, you getting comfortable with a more aggressive deck will be both fairly cheap, and a bit more forgiving when you venture into competitive play.

Ranked 50-25:

So you've beaten all those classes in practice mode. Assembled some cards. Hell maybe even you have all their basic cards unlocked by getting each class to level 10. Time for ranked play my friend. Grinding ranked is gain only through level 20. You obtain stars to ascend and won't lose any if you are defeated. Every 5 ranks (50-45 for example) is a big payout. Sometimes good gold, sometimes 3 packs from classic if I remember correctly. This is from 50-25 only. Take advantage of the reward and hit ranked early even if you don't think you are ready.

After that long grind (a month or so if you are hardcore, maybe a full season if you play casually) you will feel at home in the game. I hope this covered some basics and I love having new players become active in keeping a great game alive. Have fun out there!

The server is trying to find you an opponent in: your region>nearest your rank>queuing the longest. If you ran into the same person two times or more in a row, you are both likely part of a limited amount of people queuing at the same time in your zone. It is generally a good idea to wait a few seconds before instant queuing into the next match, because your opponent is also instantly jumping back in. It is a higher chance to match the same individual, and frankly, if they won before they feel very confident to instant queue and face you again for free rank.

This thread is acting like the nerfs hit new and fresh archetypes that just joined the game. The nerfs targeted decks that have had a strong place in the game for over 8 months+. Quit acting like big brother is forcing you to spend money on video games. Move on to the next broken deck and stop worrying about the adjustments right as they hit.

Quote from YouthThunder >>

Quote from RichardSRocha >>

Saying Odd Paladin is dead because of this nerf is stupid, to say the least.

Odd Paladin will still be tier S, given its ability to spawn minions and buff them to hell.

 Agree.i am surprised that people saying odd paladin is dead. Any deck that can summon 2 1/1s per turn without using any cards and buff them is easily tier 2 at least. 

 The buffs the deck has to offer are limited compared to the opportunity that Level Up provided. 5 mana give 3+ minions +2/2 and taunt is waaaayyyy stronger than 5 mana 2/2 give adjacent minions plus 2/2. The deck isn't necessarily dead, but you're both way too optimistic that it will stay broken ("Tier S"). What you are relying on now is Stonehill Defender giving you Tarim. Otherwise I think the winrate crashes down at least 10%.

Oh man. I’ve been waiting for this day...

I HOPE ALL OF YOU CRAFTED KINGSBANES, DRUID CARDS, AND ODD PALLY SYNERGIES. Have fun collecting a small amount of that dust back for jumping the gun and diving into crafting before the meta even settled. Great nerfs, made total sense for both standard AND wild! Maybe now we will get to see some new cards in decks (shocker). Blizzard, you have restored my faith.

So far I haven't found a way to make it work. By work I mean at or near 50% win-rate. Unfortunately Paladin doesn't have anything currently to support a midrange style. It lacks consistent and good/decent minions at each mana cost to snowball turn over turn. The best healadin I had was under-performing because of the reliance on heal synergy cards. I tried to mirror zoo warlock a bit, but unfortunately the lack of card draw hurt the deck too hard. The archetype needs better value at 2 and 3 mana, and then it may have a chance to shine.

So against aggro you get situations as Warrior where you're getting nuked by early aggression. Your hope almost entirely lies in drawing cards like Reckless Flurry and Dyn-o-matic to mitigate the early aggression and survive past turn 8 roughly. By then you should have the other tools to sweep, control, or direct the board in your favor. The problem is, as an aggro player recently I can share my success and Warrior's demise, there are situations where aggression draws well and the Warrior draws poorly. Sometimes the best play is pass (1), armor (2), armor (3), armor-coin-reckless (4). That is sub-optimal. By then the aggressive decks have taken you nearly down to half or more of your hp, and you are now playing severely behind with a class that now has to also use its health (armor) to destroy the board. Enter Eternium Rover. On curve, it can build armor so that your Reckless Flurry doesn't need armor and coin activation. Against aggro, it is a clear and excellent mitigation choice. 

No Blizzard, all the nerfs you conducted were A-OK. Thank goodness you got rid of all those pesky decks that stopped Odd Paladin from being the best deck for an entire year. As a matter of fact: I'm so happy you decided in these latest expansions to print nothing new for the deck, because well, IT DIDN'T WANT OR NEED NEW CARDS ANYWAY. I'm overjoyed that to climb ladder I have to use this deck because your "prideful meta" is so supportive of ingenuity. Wow an overall average 62% win-rate for your wonderful deck!!! Gosh, it's gonna be a shame when it leaves the meta...how will Team 5 sleep at night? Gee I wonder if Paladin is going to be a bad class to play after rotation? I mean, do classes get the opportunity to stay in the meta when they've been ignored and left unchecked for a year of gameplay? Well I guess Warrior isn't top dog anymore...Shaman isn't doing so hot either following rotation from Gadgetzhan...wait do a lot of people still play priest without highlander? Fix your game :)

Gotta love when Meme Garbage becomes meta and everyone jams it for the last 4 months its in standard. Expansion just came out and I'm counting the days until Quest Discard Warlock leaves.