Hearthpwn

One of the most hated, and number 1 wanted for nerf cards I've seen is Call to Arms. Now, I fully aggree, that the tempo in that card is huge, without any real downside. That card in it self on curve, can win any tempo match up. And of course, it feels infuriating and unfair to play against it.

But that card keeps the only "on board" archetype in the meta which has some success. Control options have gotten so good of late, that it is impossible for any deck which plays on the board to have any success. Mid range is dead. And the only card which allows a midrange-ish (some people call it aggro, I've seen some very good midrange builds of even Paladinwith Lich King, Tirion, etc...) deck to be Tier 1 at the moment, is Call to Arms. With that card gone, expect Even Paladin to be worst than Odd Paladin, a deck that once the hype was gone we realized was actually rubbish (Tier 3).

There are only TWO (out of 7) archetypes which are Tier 1 and play on board a fair game of Hearthstone. Murloc and Even Paladin. Both decks are only there because of one card. Call to Arms. When that card is nerfed, say goodbye to any board decks. Yes, the card is bonkers. But we need bonkers cards that reward you for playing minions on curve, or else those decks will never keep up with the amazing control tools there exist now.

There was once a card nerfed like this, Bonemare which felt like cheating and unfair. Well, that card was the only reason ever for decks to try to be Mid-range. Rogues were playing 6 drops to curve out to that card. Now there is no incentive ever to play a card with more than 5 mana cost if you are not a control deck. Now that we have gotten rid of Midrange, let us not do the same to aggro, and just give up tempo minions forever.

In Legend only 30% of decks are Aggro. More than 50% of those decks exist because Call to Arms exist. Maybe it does need a nerf. But not today, and not in this meta. Tempoing out should be a good strategy in Hearthstone, and not just crazy power turns.

Dammm, you nearly managed the keep it all civil and respectful. Just towards the end the bitter discussion came. Such a shame. Still a commendable effort.

So when they nerf a deck like Cubelock, they like to do it with either expensive cards (ie Legendary/Epic) or Basic cards. If they nerf your Cubelock in which you invested a lot of dust, and they refund your Dark Pact, most people would feel cheated. I'm then thinking the weapon  Skull of the Man'ari could be a huge nerf to Cubelock, but not control warlock. Having to play from hand a Doomguard is guaranteed discard of gul'dan painful. Maybe it looses a charge per demon summoned. Or just make sure that the battlecries of the the demons trigger (would also mean it does not have the bad synergy it has with Rin).

They will not nerf Divine Favor AND Call to Arms, as that would just wreck Paladin. The existance of Even and Odd Paladin as Tier 1 decks, makes this nerf extremely difficult, because they don't play a single overlapping card. But two card nerfs will nerf Paladin to oblibion. So the smartest guess for me is Sunkeeper Tarim. That card is just amazing. It makes every board a threat. It also works as a defensive tool when you thought you were loosing. The match ups against Paladin when you are winning you just tell yourself "I can only lose to Tarim). And even if it is only in Even Paladin, you can also get him in Odd Paladin from Stonehill Defender. So that would be the best card to Nerf. Maybe it just turns enemy minions to 3/3 would be right nerf. It is a defensive tool. But no longer those boards look so scary.

I'm not sure Spiteful Summoner is such a great bet myself. If they bring some 10 drops next expansion with average stats, they will not nerf it. Else, they could think about it. The best nerf would be the same cost -2 of the spell. Which means 10 cost minions never show up. But that would be too confusing. Increasing the mana cost just seems the straight forward, nerf it to oblivion answer. Which would be a shame. Decks with no early spells and only minions are actually quite fun to play against. Those Tyrantus at turn 5 when you are control, not so much.

Naga, what about just making her interaction as it was before. It cost (5) the card. Full stop. Nothing reduces its mana. Nothing increases it. Just (5).

Hi. With now more card sets in Wild than Standard, I'll like to take a quick look back at the great cards Hearthstone has given us (instead of focusing just on those we hate). I would like to hear which is for you the "best designed card" for each set that has existed. It's not your favorite card (sorry Yogg), but more those cards that the developers hit the sweet spot of what a good card is. It is different, enables game some game play, but does not feel oppressive. I haven't played all expansions, so I will not comment on the ones I am not familiar with (but would still love to hear the thoughts of more experienced players).

This is my opinion, but I would love to see which are the ones the community appreciates the most.

Basic - Animal Companion This is a hard one. There are many great basic cards that have always been played. Many other which are very useful since day one. But animal companion is the one that best captures Hearthstone. It is a strong card for its mana cost (3 mana, 4/4 taunt and Beast!!) and has RNG! But it also teaches you when you can roll the dice, and Huffer, Buffer and Puffer are, and have always been, the most iconic minions of the Basic Set. They are not just a card you play, but an actual minion you get and makes you care an go "Yeah! Huffer!", or "No!!! Leokk!". It feels so different, fun and powerful compared to the rest of the Basic set, which I think it is their best designed card.

Classic - Doomsayer  This card is just great design. Probably even the best of Hearthstone. It is a great and useful counter to aggro. It is neutral (available to all classes). It has room in nearly all control decks. And is always played, no matter what the meta. Not only that, there is no other card that does any job similar to it. It is completely different to any other card. At the same time it can also be extremely skill testing. And at the same time, no one is asking for it to be nerfed to five health, or 3 mana. I mean, it just feels the developers were truly inspired when they designed this card.

League of Explorers - Elise Starseeker The best expansion came with the best legendaries. When the set rotated it was greatly missed. The cards were, strong, good, different and balanced (cough, Tunnel Trogg, cough). The card that felt the strongest and that could fit everywhere was Brann Bronzebeard. But its effect was so powerful, that long term it would limit a lot card design. But while we had it, we enjoyed it a lot. So for that reason I think its best card was Elise. The flavour of it was great. She gave you a Map. Then you had to get the map. Once you were at the place you had to find a Golden Monkey. And when you got him, voila! You were rewarded with a hand full of legendaries. It was just a fun card to play. It was a great value card. It was cool effect, and rewarding after the effort. But it also found a place in Tier 1 competitive decks. It had the whole package.

Whispers of the Old Gods - Flamewreathed Faceless Fandral Staghelm This set has many nice cards, but not a lot of greatly designed cards. To say that Ravaging Ghoul is probably one of the best, because it comes with a Whirlwind in the right class, just shows how lackluster in originality  some of its best cards are (see: C'thun). N'zoth leaving Standard makes me miss some of those value strong 10 mana cards, that you tried to strive to create a value oriented deck. But towards the end of its life, it showed that in the long run, its battlecry could really be exploited. But luckily Fandral hits the right spot. Its effect was really cool. It allowed you to create a new minion out of the old ones you had. A whole new option for Druid of the Claw! That was cool! It was strong and value. Not too easy to pull the combo with the "Choose one" cards. Until Jade Idol came. But when that happened no one asked for a ner of Fandral, but of Jade Idol. So despite that, it still feels the best designed card in the set.

One Night in Karazhan -Prince Malchezaar  Can't really give any of them the top spot. The good cards like Maelstorm portal ot Cat Trick, feel straight forward. The ones that allowed an archetype (Silverware Golem, Malchezar's Imp), had a lot of RNG, huge tempo swings, and were really frustrating. Medivh was a powerful card. You wanted to try to put it in you deck. But you were hugely punished with weapon removal, and its effect could be just pure RNG. For some reason, when I play dumpster rank I see a lot of players playing with Prince Malchezaar. People were really excited about it. It was overall a bad card. But F2P casual players just loved it. They did not have any other card like it, and this card made a lot of people happy, without making a single dent in competitive. Thats why I voted this one. But I don't love it.

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan - Dirty Rat This set brought more broken, hated and nerfed cards than any other set. But like I said, this is to keep it positive. So I will focus on the good cards. Second Rate Bruiser was original and had the right idea, but never really took off. But Dirty Rat is the clear winner of this set. It allowed you to do something that until now you couldn't do in Hearthstone. Stop combos. Something which was impossible to deal with until that card. It was sore to loose to it, and had a lot of RNG, but it was a great, unique, tech card. 

Journey to Un'goro - Tar Creeper This card its just so great. It is up there with Doomsayer for me. It is an amazing defensive tool, neutral, common, and even has some synergy to go along with it. It could just fit any deck that wanted to defend against aggro, but not good against Mid-Range or anything else. No matter the meta, there seems to be always room for the cheaper Tazdingo with a softer punch! Shame the Quests are no where near to this spot (they should have been ). For the exception of Rogue's it feels they just needed the draw a card when you play them, so you wouldn't be with one card less in the early game and have absolutely no chance against any aggro deck.

Knights of the Frozen Throne - Defile This set brought the coolest cards in Hearthstone. Death Knights! The much needed late games options for the game, where just great. I am very careful with what I craft. I haven't even crafted Prince Keleseth, because I wasn't sure how much play it would have long term. But if I need to craft a Death Knight, I make a huge exception to my rule. I just love them (specially you, Jaina). They just changed the dynamic and the way the game went. Arthas was also a great addition to late game cards. And I even thought unnerfed Bonemare was a greatly designed card. It was the only reason to play Mid-Range instead of just aggro (see Tempo Rogue before, and now, it has no cards with more than 5 mana, and that is because they have Leeroy and Vilespine Slayer at 5 mana only). But where the Devs were truly inspired was with Defile. That card is skill testing, satisfying, could be a lot of value, and an amazing defensive tool. How good to have a great defensive tool that rewards greatly skill. And seeing the reddit posts about "Most satisfying defile ever" people just love to do a board clear with it. Sorry Godfrey, but you will never be half as cool as defile!

Kobolds and Catacombs - Wandering Monster Like MSoG, this third Expansion of the year brought a lot of powerful card, which were not loved by the community from day one. Recruit just did not work. Legendary weapons were not cool enough. And over all it feels that things were either broken, or useless (that is why this current expansion/rotation feels so lackluster for many people). But in that mess of cards, there is one secret hidden in it, which shows that Team 5 can still make cool cards. Wandering Monster is a great tool for Hunters. It was the first defensive card they could play in the early game (Candleshot also helped a lot in that, which also finally allowed Hunters to Ping). It had good synergy with Spellstone. Does not feel frustrating or broken to play against it. And even if it has a bit of RNG, it goes with the flavour of the card. Its a wandering monster! What could it be? Just a well designed card.

The Withcwood - Chameleos I don't think it is the right time to give a definite answer to this set, but I'm sure people want to give their 2 cents about it, so I'll give mine. Overall the set feels very weak, and nothing to impressive. Baku and Genn seems to give the sense that the deck has a stronger impact than it actually has. If you would have asked me before the expansion which one I thought was the best designed card, I would have said Witchwood Grizzly. That card seemed really well thought out. But the cost was too high, and aggro decks are more than happy to use their target removal for a 5 mana card. So by then it was not such a great defensive tool At least in Chameleos they have put a lot of originality, it has the right flavour, and while not an essential tool, it could see its time shining when Control Priest matters, and it is a great tech option against control.

Please give me your opinion about you best designed cards for each set. And also for Curse of Naxxramas, Goblin vs Gnomes, Blackrock Mountain and The Gand Tournament, as I did not feel qualified enough to give my opinion.

Thanks!

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I believe the only real new thing is odd dudedin with Muster and QM, but it remains to be seen if it is stronger than previous builds.

Naga giants, cubelock and paladin dominate with the odd secret mage, kingsbane rogue, big priest and jade/otk druid sprinkled in.

 

 What is the odd secret mage list that you are talking about? i haven't seen it yet.

 Lol, sorry, just a bad choice of words, I doubt there will ever be a Baku secret mage...

 

So after over 100 packs opening, I feel I might be late into the "complain about packs" rage, and now is all the rage to rage about the meta. But even If I got below average Legendary drop rates, at least they were decent ones (Moorabi + Benedecitus, instead of DKs, I remember you).

What I am annoyed is about the Epics and its duplicates. I got a total of 25 Epics (average), but of those, nearly half (11) are just the same 3 epics. While I'm missing 24 Epics, it is just painful to get your 5th Arcane Keysmith, knowing that even if you dust those 3, it is still not enough to craft one epic. It feels really bad.

No more epic duplicates is what everyone is asking, and maybe Team 5 wants you to take a risk when you craft epics (you might get them later), but they should at least reduce the chances of getting a duplicate depending on how many you have, and how many you don't have in that set. Half your epics just being the same one over and over again is not fun.

Hey! It's a meme card! We all watch tons of YouTube videos with cool interactions. They can not produce without cards like this one. So excited with some new cool way to get ultimate value, but it is not competitive so I don't get triggered by it and its cheated out/RNG/broken thing.

Hey! Not sure if it is just me. I usually avoid small samples, but by now it is already feeling weird. Since the beginning of the free extra pack with quests promotion, apart from the WW packs, I only get Un'goro. I have completed them all every day, in three different servers, and yet all packs are Un'goro. I also get the when I get a free pack I get the notification twice (all of this in the three servers). Not sure if that has anything to do with anything.

I wouldn't mind getting some K&C or KFT packs as well. Anyway, wanted to see if anyone has the same issue or it is just me. Hope it is just a small sample thing. But right now it feels very unlucky!

It's Epic - Check

Draws Cards - Check

Without it the archetype doesn't work - Check

Archetype also requires a legendary - Check

Hard for Priest to deal with - Check

This is a new card that will help to break the meta!

Edit: To the people who think this is bad - As a general rule, something that is not good playing it on its turn it is not good enough. With that in mind, it fits quite well. But obviously this is meant to work with Hagatha. The stats are good enough that just on turn 7, its poses a threat which requires an immediate answer. But when you pick the second copy after Hagatha is played, you are very likely amassing some useless Shaman Spells (two of them cost 0 mana). Just the value of getting that card and drawing 2 or 3 cards, will make this more than playable, but necessary.

If it sees any play it is broken. If it doesnt it is cool idea. Its like shifter zeus but with only good cards

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So i don't think as a card it is as borken as people claim. Yes, it can help you cheat out some effects that maybe shouldn't be available in turn 4. And even if you get a low roll, you get 4/5 stats for 4 mana, which is pretty good. But the effect card is on a 1/1 which is easy to deal with, and in order to get some very broken results, you need to sacrifice a lot in your deck.

So the Naga combo, I don't even think it is that broken. With Barnes you are able to get your whole hand out just one turn before. In exchange, you need to have giants (a lot of them) in your deck. So most times Barnes will just bring you a giant. And normally you keep your Naga in mulligan. So in that case it seems fair.

In Big priest it is not Barnes that is broken. Is the fact that you can resurrect any minion for 4 mana, and you discover it. Activating that card so early on like that is broken. Until that card Barnes existed, but Big Priest was not a real thing. Playing Barnes and getting a 1/1 Ysera is not broken. Playing 4 mana in turn 4 and getting a full blown Ysera is broken.

In Spell Hunter, Barnes does this Broken combo with Y'shaarj. But in order to work, you need to play all spells except those two cards. And most classes can already deal with Y'shaarj by Turn 4. So chance for a huge tempo swing, but by crippleing your deck. The thing is, K&C made some amazing spells for Hunter. Candleshot, Wandering Monster, Flanking Strike, Emerald Spellstone are all amazing spells. Even Crushing Walls and To My Side are more than decent cards. So the fact that Spell Hunter is a viable archetype, means that the sacrifice is just not a deal breaker. Have you noticed Barnes and Y'Shaarj are Netural? Have you noticed they have been both around for ages? Have you noticed that only until now and only in Hunter this deck with that combo is good? That is because the trade off is so harsh, only for K&C Spell Hunter, a deck of only spells and that combo is viable.

I like the Barnes you could fit in your deck when you had Ragnaros, Sylvanas, Cairne, Tyrion, etc.. in it. Could get you a really good minion. Or could just be a 4/5 stats. It wasn't broken, and help greedier decks with early turns.

Guys. They live in California. They are still sleeping. Previous days it was the weekend and they didn't go to the office. Wait for them to wake up, have their coffee, confirm they have all their chickens in line. Instead of assuming that because they didn't announce it when you had your coffee in the EU, they are delaying it one more day.

The answer is YES and NO. Mirror matches may seem the most dependent of your mulligan. But they are also the ones that reward the most skill. The reason is that every mirror match you have a 50% chance of winning. Let's say you play Paladin. That means you have a 25% Win Rate (This is just a nice number for the example) against Warlock, and a 75% WR against Mage. And, of course, a 50% WR against other Paladin.

When you cue a Warlock, you need to get very lucky with your cards, and he needs to get very unlucky. If you loose you don't feel bad, because you were unfavoured. If you win, you feel friking awesome with your self. Against mage it's the opposite. If you win you feel good with a sense of deserving it. If you lose you feel salty, but it doesn't happen too often.

In the mirror match you have a 50% chance. Obviously who gets a much better mulligan is going to win. When you don't get the better mulligan, you lose. Not only that, you know you lost because you had worst cards than him, not a worst deck. That feels very salty. The worst part, you are going to feel that salty 50% of the times you play a mirror match. And that is why it is so frustrating to you.

But at the same time, because it is a mirror match and a 50% WR, skill matters and rewards so much more. The better players is way more likely to be rewarded when the card draw is about equal. Something that will occur around 50% of the time. Against Warlock you still need to have a great draw and him a horrible to even have a chance. So your skill and how you navigate that match up will only matter 25% of your matches. But skill will matter around 50% of the mirror matches. So in a sense mirror matches are more rewarding of skill.

Then again, ladder matches you with people of your same skill (if you are complaining about mirror matches it means you get a lot of them, which means you are playing meta decks, like 90% of the players in your rank. People who play warrior in your rank probably are more skilled than the average player, but they have the handicap of playing warrior). So the skill gap will be small, and will have a low impact. That is why it will seem to you that it all just comes down to draw and not skill. Because what differentiates you of the other player is not the deck (its a mirror match), its not the skill (you are both playing a meta deck in the same rank, therefore you have the same skill). It is the draw. And that brought you here to write this post!

Similar to what they have said here. It really depends on the meta. Warlock is the only true bad match up. And there a LOT of those out there. If you find them, then Dudeadin is going to look like a terrible deck. If you want to keep trying it, whenever you encounter a Warlock, just mulligan for Blood Knight and Blessing of Kings and go BIG early on. Also avoid enabling  defiles, specially if that means not hero powering. With that I have a 50% WR. By the way Blood Knight is a very good tech card if you have a lot of warlock and mirror matches. If you see a lot of Mage and Priest, not so good. Look at the meta and adapt to it.

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