Hearthpwn

Battlecry Mage (me) vs Conjurer Mage (opponent, Book of Specters version).

I play turn 3 Messenger Raven into turn 4 Arcane Keysmith: I get offered Vaporize, Counterspell and Spellbender. I really wanted to make the scumbag play there and so I picked Spellbender.

Opponent's turn: he plays Elemental Evocation to test my secret and sees it's not Counterspell; he proceeds to emote and play a 2 mana Mountain Giant; after that he coins out Conjurer's Calling.

You really can't imagine the chills of pleasure down my spine while my opponent stood there for like 10 seconds trying to understand why he fucked up. Everything went according to my stupid plan.

feelsgoodman

Like every other fucking time, when you are playing a game after at midnight and, after that, you receive the new daily quest, the fucking screen becomes blurry. This visual bus has been for literally months and it keeps happening because hey, Blizzard has a really well developed game and is very sensible to players' feedback. What a fortune!

But it's ok: I just need to log out and in again, right? Fucking no: servers now are shit and I'm not allowed to lose my stars at rank 3 cause yeah, 6 losses in a row are like wind breeze when you're trying to hit Legend.

What a shitty ending to a very shitty day. And it's just Monday. I wonder if I'll make it to the weekend.

Conjurer's Calling is fine. - literally no one ever

Spaghetti code strikes again

I just got killed by Pyroblast. Coming from a Rogue. feelsbadman

Reno Jackson II - Electric Boogaloo

Why has Bomb Warrior returned to be a viable deck? Wasn't it supposed to be a meme? 

Imagine having a nice game on ladder, in which you and your opponent actually play cards and trade minions: nothing could go wrong, right?

Imagine then seeing Mountain Giant + Khadgar + Conjurer's Calling out of an empty board with no possibility to negate this fucking wall of 12 drops that pops out of nowhere.

Therefore, new month but here is the usual daily reminder that 3 mana Conjurer's Calling shouldn't be a card.

Quote from Matan >>

I say it's Undertaker before his nerf.

 Sorry for the question, but I wasn't playing the game in that period and thus it's difficult for me to understand exactly how much that card was a problem.

Couldn't you just Shadow Word: Pain or Shadow Word: Death it? Or even use 2 mana Ironbeak Owl/Inner Rage + 1 mana Execute?

I see plenty of countermeasures to it, but it's probably because we can say it was almost a different game in 2014

I picked Druid with Jade Idol and the passive treasure that makes you draw 3 times per turn.

I shall try the same strategy with Heroic too

Pick as much Deathrattle stuff as you can

Quote from psykechan >>

Quote from beppe946 >>

Hi everyone,

a few weeks ago I managed to hit rank 5 with Midrange Hunter despite having Zul'jin in my deck. Since then I've played very little in ranked due to university exams and a couple of days ago (after the Balance Patch) I started climbing again, but I haven't been able to go beyond Rank 4. Because of that, I'm now considering to craft Zul'jin in order to get that nice late game push and to justify most of the spells I'm running.

Now, some questions: considering that I'm playing a regular Midrange Hunter list (more or less this one), is it a deck worth the craft? Cause I'm feeling like I'm being annihilated by this new meta: maybe it's not that good anymore (or maybe it's just some bad luck of mine). Moreover, I think that there will soon be another balance patch, as the Devs left intended a week ago. Considering this case scenario, would this craft lose some of its value?

Thanks!

I'm going to assume that you did not have Zul'jin in your Midrange Hunter deck since you are considering crafting him. Also, there is going to be a balance patch (18 card buffs and 1 card nerf) on June 3rd which will likely affect the meta in some way. If you are on the fence on crafting, please hold on for a few weeks.

However, since I would still very recommend crafting Zul'jin, lets look at his strengths, status post the rogue nerf, and speculate about usage post the Boomsday Buff patch.

Zul'jin's power comes from being able a single card to "reload" your board, and in some cases, your hand. He is most useful with secrets, summoning spells (with one exception), and and enemy-targeted spells like Deadly Shot. He is somewhat less useful with neutral-targeted spells like Kill Command as it can (and will!) hit your side of the board, or spells like Tracking where you don't get to discover what card you pull. Well worth the 10 mana to play, plus as a nice bonus you get 5 armor and permanent Steamwheedle Sniper effect for the rest of the game.

Of the five hunter archetypes (Secret Hunter, Midrange Beast Hunter, Bomb Mech Hunter, Deathrattle Mech Hunter, and Spell Hunter), Zul'jin was in use in all but Bomb Hunter which tried to close games before turn 10. Midrange Hunter also tried to close games before 10 but if you did have to go longer, he was invaluable.

Tempo rogue was one of hunter's boogeymen being able to kill much faster. Tempo rogue is dead now, however, all hunter archetypes still struggle against Token Druid, Murloc Shaman, and Zoo Warlock; decks that can flood the board so that hunter can't keep up. If hunter can survive into late game, they will often win simply due to value from Zul'jin. Bomb Hunter suffered at the hands of Tempo Rogue like all of the other archetypes, but it preyed upon Tempo Rogue's counter deck Control Warrior. With Control Warrior not having their favorite prey anymore their numbers dwindle so Bomb Hunter's advantage dwindles too. Terribly sorry for those who crafted Boommaster Flark but Zul'jin is by far the superior late game card.

With the Boomsday Buffs approaching, we have to look at if the two buffed hunter cards (Necromechanic and Flark's Boom-Zooka) and SN1P-SN4P will help, and we have to see if there are any distinct problems that other buffed classes will impose.

SN1P-SN4P will be a moderate boost to Bomb Hunter and a very minor boost to Deathrattle Hunter. Will it make Bomb Hunter want to use Zul'jin? No. Will it make Zul'jin better in Deathrattle Hunter? Not really as it makes Nine Lives slightly worse filling up precious Zul'jin board space with 1/1s.

Will the Flark's Boom-Zooka buff make a difference? Ha ha ha no, not in standard at least. Wild Big Charge Beast Hunter may climb up to being a tier 4 deck, so at least there's that.

How about Necromechanic? This one is very interesting. Houndmaster Shaw has shown us that even playing a minion like this on curve is viable as it can be difficult to clear. Deathrattle Hunter will definitely use this and Bomb Hunter may think about it over SN1P-SN4P. Having Nine Lives trigger twice off of Zul'Jin is not bad but it's certainly no game changer.

About the other classes? Warrior and Paladin may improve slightly. I don't think that they will give hunter too many problems. Shaman and Mage are getting a slight buff that will make them better against hunter. That's about it though.

First of all thanks for your impressive analysis: you touched a lot of points and supported your arguments. Well done!

Secondly, I have to admit I crafted him a couple of hours after my post here: I felt like it is a card that won't be ever be bad (maybe just if the whole class is a pile of trash); just slap a couple of good spells in your deck and you'll have a decent turn 10+.

It's been less than 48 hours and he has already won me a considerable amount of games (finisher, last resort, value generator): the game plan radically changes when you know you're going to spend those 10 mana.

Your reasoning is valid whether Hunter will be bad/will use anti-synergistic spells, but until then (I really hope it won't happen) HERE COMES THE BIG AXE!

Unleash the Beast is pretty solid

I just took a Control Shaman down to fatigue and won thanks to Dire Frenzy and Vicious Scalehide shenanigans.

Props to him for getting Archmage Antonidas out of Mutate and making me play Zul'jin way before I wanted to (just had a couple of useful spells in it)

I'm not crying, you're crying