Hearthpwn

Deliberately exploiting bugs could get you banned, so it can't be a good idea to grind ranked with this.

I kinda hope they acknowledge the interaction and leave it in, I've not used OG  C'Thun in ages

Admittedly haven't used it since December, but Bluestacks on PC is really smooth for amazon purchases.  They even have hearthstone all over their installation splash screens so they know exactly who they're targeting.

I have never owned an android device and have use Amazon coins for hearthstone purchases since GVG.

utterly obnoxious if you can heal it or increase its health.

A 6/1 with double divine shield is otherwise not exciting

Nice mechanics crossover between Scholomance and DM Faire

Wow - I'd been hoarding Darkmoon pack rewards for the mini-exp, guess I can forget that BS and start cracking them now!  

Really approve of this.  Given that most players wont have full sets of DM legendaries/epics, it would have been so annoying to open packs with only a 50% (or whatever) chance of getting new cards vs old cards that you'd already decided you didn't need.

If the overwhelming volume of available games is really against players with complete decks, then something has to change.  I'd even advocate them running bots to soak up games against inexperienced/bad players at the bottom of ladder or on the starter ranks.  

I have a hunch that the real situation isn't actually as bleak, and that they're doing something (whether winrate, IP checking, behavior checking) to identify experienced players starting or handholding new accounts and then treating them as fully fledged players, no matter how minimal the collection on the account.

Created a new account for my 5yo son yesterday.

After doing the starter games with Jaina, he was at new player rank 40 and being put against players who had clearly been through a few games - they had several cards from expansions and a couple of (bad) legendaries in their decks.

So, to avoid him getting too frustrated I took the Ipad off him and set him doing Illidan's missions, then assembled a basic Demon Hunter deck using all of the free cards, expecting that this would be good enough to get through the new player ranks.

After a couple of games so still at new player rank 40-39. we started being paired against players with complete standard decks - Evolve Shaman, Aggro Demon Hunter, Soul Demon Hunter.  WTF.  Bear in mind that apart from demon hunter and opening a couple of packs, the account has pretty much zero collection - i.e. not even unlocked basic cards on the non-DH classes.

Has anyone else tried messing with new accounts recently?  Have I "ruined" the account by unlocking Illidan and consigned it to playing fully fledged players even though it's still on the starter ranks?

Do games against friends count towards achievements like this one?  (sorry, too lazy to figure out for myself)

I got my championship packs, but didn't see anything about the 2x50g :(  

Should you get a popup to inform you of the gold being added or is it added silently?  If it's been added silently, I likely wouldn't have noticed.

Quote from JackJimson >>

Quote from SirJohn13 >>

Do you guys know if next season we get a 2nd portrait (from the same 10) for reaching level 50 on the battle pass? Because that would make the current decision a lot easier

 This is unverified, but the consensus is the pool of portraits will remain the same for the succeeding rewards tracks. And blizz just tweeks by adding (or maybe removing) from the pool. 

 Yep, I think this is right.  Assuming we see 3 reward tracks / year, you're good for skins to farm for over 3 years

For most normal players, if you get two pity timers in a row that run to 30-40 it will pretty much cripple you in game for a while unless you have reserves to dig into, either spare gold/dust or from credit card. 

The current worst cases - even if you open 130+ packs on day 1 of an expansion, can pretty bad, which isn't really fair when you consider that's players who saved up gold for three months and spent some cash on a bundle.

Fair point - while the other two really are one-sided matches, the Aggro Druid matchup is still favoured but more marginal.  It'll sneak games from under you with insane Embiggen/Patches the Pirate starts, it will steal some midgames with Voracious Reader, or lock you out of even playing Shadow Essence with Infectious Sporeling if you run out of spot removal.  Removing Breath of the Infinite will hurt the Aggro Druid matchup for sure though.

You can absolutely win without Shadow Essence by stalling until you get enough mana to hardcast big stuff.  You can also win by running out Archmage Vargoth on t4 and using res spells to pull him back - 2 Vargoths for a 2 mana resurrect will ruin aggro druid's tempo

I tried playing a few games with Tickatus decks and they felt ridiculously inconsistent.  All the late game decks have some means of smashing your face in if the midgame, and the tickatus plan B of playing discounted dreadlords is just not very exciting compared to everything else.

I agree that it feels terrible to lose to it with a midrange/control deck, where if they get tickatus discounted and then copy it, you have no way to interact.

Because the effect is unique to one card, but so powerful and has no real counterplay, I think the card is currently a mess. 

I found Breath of the Infinite absolutely crucial to the deck crushing Odd Paladin, Aggro Demon Hunter and Aggro Druid.  Unless you're deep in a pocket of control decks on ladder, I would definitely leave it in. 

Also, putting any more minions in will dilute Shadow Essence, as everything else is a massively worse pulls than what's in the deck.   In the control matches you just want it to pull Blood of G'huun every time, aggro you want Scrapyard Colossus, and Archmage Vargoth is just a freebie of course.

This list got me to legend from D5 in a few hours of play after picking it up yesterday

It works well if you're playing casually.  Normally I need to be on a PC to be competitive after D5 but this one I could comfortably pilot on an Ipad.

It absolutely eats Odd Paladin and Aggro Demon Hunter for breakfast.  Being able to accelerate out Mass Hysteria and Psychic Scream is crazy.  Don't fall for Oh My Yogg!, pretty much the only game I lost to Odd Pala was because I hadn't realised people were playing it yet.

Aggro druid can sneak games from under you - you have to keep a removal in hand for Infectious Sporeling (which ruins your strategy) and Voracious Reader (which will just ruin you).

Mirror matches are exceptionally annoying and comes to whoever gets a Blood of G'huun to stick.  I have a feeling this is unfavoured against some of the other builds out there running Mass Resurrection.