Hearthpwn

Alright, let's take a look!

• Reno, Lone Ranger - I think the general change to highlander would have been enough. The only highlander deck that performs well is Warrior, so I don't see why Reno should be a nerf target.
• Virus Module - Specifically targets the 1-dimensional Rogue deck. Good. The module is still playable.
• Gaslight Gatekeeper - I assume this is to target the Playhouse Giant Rogue. Also good, anything that can randomly vomit out massive boards really early isn't very healthy for the game,
• Snake Oil - Big nerf to both Nature Shaman and Rainbow Mage. I don't think Rainbow Mage is very problematic since it's rather slow to OTK and is vulnerable to Dirty Rat, but Nature Shaman is very annoying to play against when it randomly kills you on turn 4.
• Wheel of DEATH!!! - I'm on the fence whether this is needed with all of the other nerfs to the deck.
• Forge of Wills - This is an enormous nerf to the card in Handlock since they play their big minion on turn 4. Not as much so in Pain Warlock since you can play it alongside Molten Giant on the same turn. I think that deck is still going to be really powerful after these nerfs, potentially even more so than now with the many AoE nerfs.
• Imprisoned Horror - A meaningful nerf for sure, but it won't the deck as a whole that much.
• Timewinder Zarimi - This probably kills the aggro version of Zarimi Priest. The requirement is still very much doable with a more control oriented deck through Clay Matriarch.
• Threads of Despair - A big nerf, but I think it's still a great card.
• Sickly Grimewalker - A very tiny nerf since the bigger stats partly makes up for the cost increase.
• Side note - No nerfs to Plague DK? Really?
• Sanitize - A big hit to Warrior since they lose their only 5.mana AoE.
• Trial by Fire - Another big hit. Warrior is really going to struggle with early board control after these nerfs.
• Boomboss Tho'grun - This is interesting. In most cases this is a big nerf, but it actually massively improves the matchup against Wheel Warlock. Overall though I think the Warrior changes are going to make Odyn Warrior the preferred version of Control Warrior.
• Flash of Lightning - Not a big deal for Nature Shaman, but a pretty meaningful change for other Shaman decks that don't use the card for the OTK potential.
• Crash of Thunder - Along with the Snake Oil nerf this is going to slow down the OTK for Shaman significantly. I think the deck will still be very good against control decks that can't increase their life total, but it will be unplayable in an aggro meta.
• Jungle Gym - A needed nerf, but I don't think this is nearly enough, especially with the nerfs to a lot of AoE cards. Token Hunter will probably still be among the top decks.
• "No Duplicates" Change - This is actually a pretty significant buff to several highlander decks, since they can now shuffle multiple copies of cards into their deck without disabling their highlander effects.
• Manufacturing Error - I still can't think of a deck that would use this.
• Sunset Volley - A tiny and mostly meaningless buff to The Galactic Projection Orb, but more importantly this completely deletes Tendril Warrior and Tendril Shaman.
• Mes'Adune the Fractured - Not sure if this does anything. Elemental Mage doesn't currently use the card and I don't have enough experience with the deck to say if it will afterwards.
• Woodland Wonders - This is a huge buff, and a needed one, especially since spell power Druid (which was already bad) also got hit by the nerf to Snake Oil.
• Zok Fogsnout - Hero power Druid will probably still be terrible.
• Chia Drake - A nice buff. Probably a staple in all Druid decks now.
• Hagatha the Fabled - That's a big buff since you can now curve into a 5-cost spell. Unfortunately the best target (Crash of Thunder) is now 6 mana, and Aftershocks isn't a possible target either.
• Aftershocks - A tiny buff for when you haven't cast a spell on the turn before. This won't matter much.
• Botface - Still won't see play.
• Toyrannosaurus - A massive buff. I have no experience with the current Big Beast Hunter to say if it matters.
• Shoplifter Goldbeard - I have no idea if Pirate Rogue is even remotely playable, I've never seen it.
• The Crystal Cove - Probably still bad, I think, but I could be wrong. This is the kind of card that could go from unplayable to broken with a buff like this.
• Crane Game - This card felt way too slow when I last used it, and I think it's still too slow.
• Fly Off the Shelves - A control version of Zarimi Priest was already playable, this might push it into being an actually good deck.
• Papercraft Angel - This changes nothing.
• Treasure Distributor - I still don't see Pirate Rogue being competitive with Hunter.
• Splendiferous Whizbang - Good, many of the decks were pretty weak.

I have to say that the balance team has been doing a really good job recently. They're slow to react, but the direction of the balance changes has been excellent. OTKs are definitely out of hand, pretty much reducing the meta to OTK and aggro (and Plague).

I don't think Reno is a big problem really, most highlander decks are quite weak and Reno is the one card making them at least somewhat playable. A bigger problem with the card in my opinion is that it can be easily poached by non-highlander decks by simply drawing through the entire deck (or destroying it), effectively circumventing his downside.

We had seen that many players routinely completed their Weekly Quests through their regular play, without even really engaging with the Weekly Quest system

Because when I log into Hearthstone I want to play the decks I've built and that I think are fun. I don't want to play a deck with only miniaturize minions because a weekly quest requires me to, that is not fun and it interferes with my goal to get legend every month, which already can take the better part of that month.

Some of these increases don't matter in the slightest, like spending 750 mana or using 100 battlecries is still trivial. But 60 miniaturize/minis is insane, I don't even have a single miniaturize card in any of the decks I play. I don't want to have to play unranked or play a shitty deck and lose rank just to complete weeklies.

Decks I would nerf right now:

- DH and Hunter, the strongest aggro decks
- Wheel Warlock, performs well already and is only going to get stronger as aggro gets weaker.
- Zilliax Rogue, this deck just has a degenerate play pattern
- Zarimi Priest, I don't think it's ok for a fairly potent tempo deck to also have an OTK this powerful.
- Plague DK, has become more frustrating now that Steamcleaner doesn't exist
. Highlander Warrior, this is more of a maybe, I think it's being inflated by countering aggro quite well.

No there's no reliable way to do it, unless you're playing Warlock and deleting your own deck. Pretty annoying when you're playing a highlander deck.

I definitely agree, this is the kind of power level I'd expect going into the yearly rotation, not after it.

I'm being carefully optimistic though, since Blizzard was quite good at nerfing excessive burst last year.

Really cool, and powerful effect, especially if you get lucky and get deathrattle or reborn minions.

It doesn't look that great, 4/4 is not a good statline.

Crazy.

good idea to fill your hand with scraps and abuse it:) converting HP to Atk with priest i think there is still things to do /  discover , especially with kobold, have you tried high HP low atk minions , alchemists , reflecto, lightspawns and stormpike aid before settling for this ? +1 for (finaly) a battletested support priest

I feel like this was the wrong nerf.  The bigger issues with the Caverns Below are that games all feel the same (everything becoming 5/5 does that), that the buff can't be removed by silence or polymorph effects (that is, you can't really tech against it), and that there's Preparation to make the reward cost 2.

My preference: Crystal Core would give any minion +2/+2 when summoned (not just played from hand), and that this buff could be cleared off by silence and poly.  This would limit the burst by not impacting minions already on board and reducing the power of common chargers by 20-40%.  This would add variety to how games feel, since base minion stats would actually matter, and minions on board would be vulnerable to tech.

It'll be harder to assemble the quest now, but I'm not sure games with or against Quest Rogue will feel any different.

Ok...I realize this is not the first or the last time this has happened, but thought I'd share anyway: a 20/20 Radiant Elemental on Turn 2. Yes...2.

Sequence was:

Turn 1: The Coin (0) > Radiant Elemental (2) > Power Word: Shield (0) 

Turn 2:  Divine Spirit (1)  > Divine Spirit (1) > Inner Fire (0)

Needless to say Grommash was choosing death pretty much instantaneously...

Just wanted to share that over the past few seasons I have been climbing to around rank 6-7 and I use a variety of decks ranging from Control Pally to Dragon Priest to Midrange Hunter. While all of these are fine and dandy to climb, I think it is important to learn how to stay away from net-deck recommendations and get a better understanding of deck building on your own.  

I have made decks before that end up being very similar to popular decks on the net just because of how the meta works, but I think this time I want to do something that is really unheard of and make it work. Are there any cards out there that anyone wants to see more play but just doesn't have a place yet?

Personally, I would cut both zombie Chows and Solemn Vigil for Golakka Crawlers and the Curator. You already run 2 drakes.

I made a quick video of me playing this deck on the early wild mode ladder - fun times!

I credited you in the video for the deck - I hope this is ok.

https://youtu.be/CXOtG7uCymA