Hearthpwn

Serious question:  Can you describe a scenario where you outwit your opponent?  

When this mode was first teased I was pretty excited.  Then I read it wouldn't actually be using the cards.  And I became worried.

I think I was right to worry.  In my very short sample of Mercs it was very boring.  I don't really see it getting much better wtih time.  The play is just very linear.  

That being said, if YOU like it, more power to you.  Just not for me.  I came here to play wizard poker.

I finally played a bit.  Seemed very boring.  Felt like same strategy for every battle.

-shrug-

But, if you enjoy it, great!  And if you want to dump a lot of cash into it, I'm even more happy.  

Just not for me. 

I thought everything he said made perfect sense.  Not sure why that should count as whining.

I'm always in favor of more cosmetics.

The humor was lost on me.  The mods on here are weird.  I've had like 10 threads locked and yet this one gets to live.

Sorry, but this thread is pretty worthless.  I don't mind a humor thread once in a while, but they have to have humor.  This just felt like someone describing a dream.  An incoherent stream of consciousness.  

Again, sorry.

Mindrender Illucia
Cost 4

3/6
Battlecry:  You may play cards in your opponent's hand as if they were your own unitl the end of the turn.

Still does similar things.  Not at all good as a time warp for aggro now.  Not even that good as an anti-combo card due to the 4 cost.  Effectively killed.  Even giving her vanilla stats doesn't make her worth playing.  More of a late game value generator now.

I agree a bit.  Disagree a bit.  I think card draw is fine.  But, should be a tempo loss.  Things like Refreshing Spring water that 'can' be tempo gains and draw together are bad.  There are a fair number of cards that can be both draw and tempo together.  I'd love to see those removed and let draw just be draw.  Some cards get synergy to allow them to be both tempo and draw.  I'd like to see this toned down.  Some synergy is fine, but when the focus of the deck revolves around a draw plus tempo synergy that gets problematic.  I guess it is ok for a combo deck that needs 10 mana and 5 cards in hand to go off.   But, I'd love to see it more limited.

I also think mana cheat is fine.  As long as it it balanced.  And I think it really gets worse when draw is easy.  Mana cheat should have a cost.  One cost is often cards in hand, but if draw is abundant and cheap that cost is pretty small.  So,  I think mana cheat is better in classes with little draw.  They cheat something out, if you manage to deal with it, you are then ahead in tempo or cards.  But, if they cheat something out and you deal with it and remain behind, that isn't too fun.  I think that's the problem with those giants and raise dead.  You can maybe deal with that one giant being cheated out.  Maybe even 2.  But, when it becomes 4 you just run out of answers.  Feels wrong.  They are the one mana cheating, so they should be the one running out of threats.  Not you.  So, basically I don't mind an 8/8 on turn 4.  That's scary, but often can be dealt with.  What I mind is an 8/8 on 4, another on 5, 2 more on 6....   It's just too much.  You need a downside to that early 8/8 to give the opponent a chance to respond and recover.

So, I understand that each match must come to an end.  Every match ending is inevitable.  

But, I think a lot of salt is created when you face a situation where you see you can't win.  No matter what you do.  No matter what you draw.  No matter how well you play.  Your fate is decided.

Of course, there is a concede button to deal with this.  You don't have to keep fighting a fight you know is lost unless you don't know how to use the concede button.  

But, I would rather the game be designed where there was counterplay.  Where there were cards you could include in your deck, that if you included them in your deck building, and you drew them, and played them wisely, you could potentially find ways to combat inevitable situations.

Even if I don't include that card in my deck.  I still feel better losing to that situation if I know that I COULD have used it.  I COULD have found a way.  I COULD alter my deck to give me a chance to defeat that strategy.  That to me feels a TON better than just saying, 'that is just a bad matchup'.  

I really wish there were more counterplay options in this game.  Maybe they need to release more cards each release so that they have room to include some clunky tech cards.

I don't know.  Maybe folks don't want counterplay?  Maybe they think that inevitability is a good thing?  

Where do you stand?

I think the easiest thing to do about quests is to print an anti-quest tech card.

My idea is a minion with battlecry that resets a quest to the beginning.

Idk about you, but in my case, warlock makes les than 6% of my matches, they don't always get to play it, and if they do, most of the times is not a big deal anyway.

Im honestly holding my opinions of the new system until the end of expansion. If my gold is less than 5k its shit and blizzard are greedy and bad, if its more or equal its fine.

I've bought the last 6 expansions but you're wrong I'm afraid. Without F2P I can't imagine how small the player base would be and the game would pretty much die. To be healthy the game needs a balance of both F2P and people putting money in. Blizzard might not benefit financially directly from F2P but if paying customers are waiting 5 minutes+ for a game they'll soon stop paying and playing. Unless you want HS to go the way of Artifact?

you guys remember back in the day Druid of the Flame being played because a 3 mana 2/5 was good stats?

I think it fits in any control-ish deck that has tokens. It's a cheaper mind control with a body in that situation. I put it in quest shaman, where I can give two lackeys and get two big bodies in return. 

I too was a fan of the Fal'dorei Strider. I would also like to see Vilespine Slayer and Sherazin, Corpse Flower return. Hell, just bring back Ungoro :p

So everybody knows the latest nerfs were not enough and there are still a lot of problematic cards out there. So I took the time and recreated the most insane cards of the current meta (Standard and Wild) to make them more balanced (but still playable).

First Day of School is a Paladin staple. My approach was to just swap the numbers. It won't change much, but it's a start:

Secret Passage is almost fine as it is now, you just have to increase the mana cost:

To nerf Archwitch Willow was the right decision. But why lower it's mana cost??

 Guardian Animals is almost perfect as it is. Maybe they should just give it a minor downside:

Kael'thas Sunstrider is still a HUGE problem, played almost in EVERY deck, it NEEDS to be nerfed a third time:

Eveybody knows Ace Hunter Kreen has DOMINATED the meta for weeks on end, so I made some adjustments that keep it balanced:

Yes, it's finally time to talk about an ongoing problem, no one dares to speak out about .... Chillwind Yeti!! A 4 mana 4/5 without a drawback?? Ridiculous?? What were they smoking?? The uncrowned king of cards has to take a hit, hands down:

For Wild i think, Leeroy Jenkins is still SUPER UNFUN to play against .... let's turn that upside-down:

Also what's going on with these super-high health Poisonous minions?? Infinite damage to minions?? This needs to stop!! They have to be removeable!!

But because there are still a few unplayable cards in the game, let's buff a card or two (Poisonous is the way to go in my humble opinion, I know it's controversial, but buffed cards HAVE TO FEEL POWERFUL):

Yes the new Epic gem on Toothy Chest is not an accident - because there's still one more card to nerf:

 So what do you think? Could these changes make the game more fun and interactive?

If Secret Passage doesn't exist, the elf in the party would feel like their racial ability is useless, so the DM threw a few in.

Quote from kitox_me >>

Buff the noobs so they can win games

 Buff the boobs, bring back the real Jaina.

Quote from parzival2345 >>

it just feels terrible dying over 8-10 turns to 2/6s and 3/4s. 

I also accept that stabilization tools are necessary, and I don't have any issue with control decks being able to stabilize. I just want them to actually kill me instead of just putting up a wall and waiting. 

 That's the fairest critique of Res Priest I've read.

My counterpoint is glib, but "bottom right."

There's precedent in one of the greatest games ever created: Chess.  If you look at top pro chess players, if someone is a piece ahead (and not just queen or rook, sometimes even just a single pawn!) in the endgame, that can easily be a resignable for the player behind.  Folks will resign 10, 20, 30 moves ahead of a potential checkmate, because they know they cannot win.  Sometimes folks will play it out, try to flag a draw or even a win if an opponent makes a mistake, particularly if the clock is running down, but usually top players know their opponents have things under control, and can convert winning positions.

If we view victory in Chess, not as checkmating the opposing king, but reaching a board state where checkmate is inevitable, it becomes easier to analogize to Hearthstone.  While you "win" when you reduce an opponent to 0 life, there is often a moment before this when victory is inevitable.  With a lot of decks, this is only a single turn.  Opponent has lethal on board, and you can't prevent it.  For Res Priest and other grinder-style decks, that moment where they can't lose and you can't win is a bit hazier.

Still, by the time they hit your face enough to reduce you to 0, they'd already "won" three or four turns ago.  What you choose to do between then and the 0 hp is up to you.

//

For context, my position isn't that res priest is good, or res priest is bad.  It's that res priest isn't special.  It's a grinder deck, ultimately not really different from other grinder decks that sacrifice early game activity for late-game inevitability.  I know some folks hate that grinder style, personally I prefer it to the OTK/Burst style of deck.