Hearthpwn

Can't wait until the next repeat of the card-machine tavern brawl, together with the new 0 drop murloc this could be amazing, Murloc tinyfins are a keep so is this, 1 drop is tidecaller, 2 drop tidehunter, 3 drop warleader, 4 drop old murkeye, 5 drop is faceless, 6 drop is fire ely, 7 is this and guaranteed gg. So fun.

This card actually synergizes with the new legendary as both of themt could really fit a fatigue deck. On top of that you are guaranteed to curve out, unlike with novice engineer. If this mechanic appears on some other. Ards in this set, there may be a viable fatigue deck possible. Can't wait to see more cards.

The only decks that could hope to use this would be mill/fatigue decks. Unfortunately neither of those deck types are all that viable competitively.

Quote from swinkscalibur >>

Ideas for a redesigned more fair Ladder System:

In Hearthstone there is an already existing and potentially vastly under-utilized system that can be tapped to recreate the current ladder system: Experience.

Now before you start flaming me hear me out a minute.

Instead of earning stars and ranks until you reach legend, each account would have a seasonally reset level associated with it. This level would grow with experience earn in ranked play. This experience would be tracked separately from class experience and the experience system would need to be tweaked slightly.

Here are some of my ideas:

Experience should be earned for 

1) Killing enemy minions

2) Playing cards

3) Winning the game

4) Win streaking 

5) Losing the game (negatively)

Experience earned should be modified by:

1) Current level

2) Level of opponent

It should NOT be possible to loose experience but the difficulty of earning experience without the win should increase with your current level. It should be possible to earn experience while still loosing, especially at lower levels. The exact figures and modifiers would need to be tweaked to achieve the desired balance, but the overall change to the system (as I see it) would be as follows.

You can keep the current rank names and legend system, replacing the stars in each rank with an experience to next rank bar.

You can remove the disincentive to playing longer games by rewarding them with more balanced experience (even in losses)

You still encourage players to play efficiently as length of time is not specifically rewarded.

You can make BM and intentional game lengthening have diminishing returns especially with increase in rank.

You fix casual mode, as there is no longer a penalty for playing experimental decks, especially at lower ranks.

 

Some other thoughts. There is no reason a system like this couldn't be created for Arena and Brawl as well, though some tweaks may be needed for Arena to make multiple low win runs much less valued than fewer high win runs (simply scale experience for wins with the number of wins achieved in the run). 

Since this might also fix casual mode, there is no need to have Brawl be THE casual mode, it can be split as well into both casual and ranked, with perhaps a deeper reward structure and perhaps a cost associated with the Ranked version.

The exact variables and numbers for the experience earned in different fashions would need to be tweaked and balanced, but I think this is a good outline and start for what would be a far more compelling game over all (and Hearthstone is already plenty compelling in my book). 

Edit: Additionally, if you are splitting Brawl into a Pay-to-Play ranked with rewards and Free-to-play casual with just the pack, why not also do the same for Arena. Ranked arena can be pay to play and have the current reward system as well as perhaps a seasonal reward system, and casual arena can become a weekly one time reward, but be free to play. This would also create a way for less experienced players to practice the arena game mode without the sometimes high cost associated with it. Getting 12 wins in casual would be about the excitement only and the dream of repeating that in ranked in the future.

Finally, utilizing a system like this would allow for future tournament modes to be created in the Limited Formats of both Brawl and Arena and more easily rate players by skill level.

Ideas for a redesigned more fair Ladder System:

In Hearthstone there is an already existing and potentially vastly under-utilized system that can be tapped to recreate the current ladder system: Experience.

Now before you start flaming me hear me out a minute.

Instead of earning stars and ranks until you reach legend, each account would have a seasonally reset level associated with it. This level would grow with experience earn in ranked play. This experience would be tracked separately from class experience and the experience system would need to be tweaked slightly.

Here are some of my ideas:

Experience should be earned for 

1) Killing enemy minions

2) Playing cards

3) Winning the game

4) Win streaking 

5) Losing the game (negatively)

Experience earned should be modified by:

1) Current level

2) Level of opponent

It should NOT be possible to loose experience but the difficulty of earning experience without the win should increase with your current level. It should be possible to earn experience while still loosing, especially at lower levels. The exact figures and modifiers would need to be tweaked to achieve the desired balance, but the overall change to the system (as I see it) would be as follows.

You can keep the current rank names and legend system, replacing the stars in each rank with an experience to next rank bar.

You can remove the disincentive to playing longer games by rewarding them with more balanced experience (even in losses)

You still encourage players to play efficiently as length of time is not specifically rewarded.

You can make BM and intentional game lengthening have diminishing returns especially with increase in rank.

You fix casual mode, as there is no longer a penalty for playing experimental decks, especially at lower ranks.

Some other thoughts. There is no reason a system like this couldn't be created for Arena and Brawl as well, though some tweaks may be needed for Arena to make multiple low win runs much less valued than fewer high win runs (simply scale experience for wins with the number of wins achieved in the run). 

Since this might also fix casual mode, there is no need to have Brawl be THE casual mode, it can be split as well into both casual and ranked, with perhaps a deeper reward structure and perhaps a cost associated with the Ranked version.

The exact variables and numbers for the experience earned in different fashions would need to be tweaked and balanced, but I think this is a good outline and start for what would be a far more compelling game over all (and Hearthstone is already plenty compelling in my book). 

Edit: Additionally, if you are splitting Brawl into a Pay-to-Play ranked with rewards and Free-to-play casual with just the pack, why not also do the same for Arena. Ranked arena can be pay to play and have the current reward system as well as perhaps a seasonal reward system, and casual arena can become a weekly one time reward, but be free to play. This would also create a way for less experienced players to practice the arena game mode without the sometimes high cost associated with it. Getting 12 wins in casual would be about the excitement only and the dream of repeating that in ranked in the future.

Finally, utilizing a system like this would allow for future tournament modes to be created in the Limited Formats of both Brawl and Arena and more easily rate players by skill level.

This is fun, if it wasn't for decks like this, all you would see is Druid, Druid , Druid. This kind of deck is about developing a brawl meta. Not to mention, it doesn't work all the time. It actually takes a ton of thought to win with against non HP centric decks. Pure ramp Druid with big minions wrecks this pretty hard. Chill a bit, thinking up counter decks is fun too.

Check thiS deck I made out if you are loosing to AC Druid. I have anear 85% win rate with it against Druid and it holds its own elsewhere. It completely ignores using the HP synergy and instead counters decks which use it HARD. No minions means the opponent has a 1 in 4 chance that their HP will be locked the rest of the game. This especially bad for AC Druid. Then simply weapon down their face and control their bad HP synergy cards for the easy win.

Increasing the max health of the hero is certainly stronger. It's also unique, but I would say 3 mana would still be fair. The weapon does nothing for tempo for a min of 4 turns. Yes it gives increased value to the HP but not permanently.

With 2 of these in a fatigue priest, along with justicar, you could achieve 46 max health and realistically escape all but the biggest burst decks.

Use the Inspire mechanic.

For Benediction

Inspire: Give your hero +2 armor and lose 1 durability. Deathrattle: Equip Anathema.

For Anathema

Inspire: Destroy the last minion that was healed and lose 1 durability. 

Or

Inspire: Destroy a random enemy minion and lose 1 durability.

Halion was a powerful Twilight dragon. As a race the twilight dragonflight has the ability to absorb sources of magical energy. This is the way I created that effect. In many cases Halion with be a 6/8 for 7, but in a top deck war, or in a control matchup it could be game winning. Getting it late game out of an unstable portal would mean playing it with another card or really shooting yourself in the foot. Overloaded mana crystals would count as unspent.

So the brawl is over, finished out at 75 wins around 45 losses, had a massively dominant and boring dragon priest that went around 18-6. I had a warrior with around 50% winrate in 30 games and the bulk of my wins were from my bonkers rogue murloc Deck. So fun to empty you hand by turn  and win by turn 3

Quote from nurgling13 >>

Quote from swinkscalibur >>

Any thoughts on the Death Knight cards themselves?

I think they are mostly pretty well designed. I think Terrorize might be too cheap for what it does. In most cases, the minion won't be damage until you cast an AOE, so this is a pretty good removal spell for 1 mana, unless you're playing a mage. Maybe the fact that it isn't very useful against taunt minions might make up for it. For shatter soul, is it supposed to be a random enemy minion? If it can be any minion, it seems too risky to play in most cases. I think Meat Wagon might actually be too weak. I think it should be a 2/2. 

Thanks for your feedback. Yeah terrorize is situationally OP, but it does work against taunts or damaged minions. Soul shatter should read random enemy minion, thank you. Also, the more I think about it, meat wagon will never be an early game play, so my  concern for it becoming to big to fast is unfounded. A 2/2 should be fine.

Quote from nurgling13 >>

Quote from swinkscalibur >>

Any thoughts on the Death Knight cards themselves?

I think they are mostly pretty well designed. I think Terrorize might be too cheap for what it does. In most cases, the minion won't be damage until you cast an AOE, so this is a pretty good removal spell for 1 mana, unless you're playing a mage. Maybe the fact that it isn't very useful against taunt minions might make up for it. For shatter soul, is it supposed to be a random enemy minion? If it can be any minion, it seems too risky to play in most cases. I think Meat Wagon might actually be too weak. I think it should be a 2/2. 

Thanks for your feedback. Yeah terrorize is situationally OP, but it does work against taunts or damaged minions. Soul shatter should read random enemy minion, thank you. Also, the more I think about it, meat wagon will never be an early game play, so my  concern for it becoming to big to fast is unfounded. A 2/2 should be fine.

Any thoughts on the Death Knight cards themselves?

So I am not sure if you saw my update. I understand the point you are making and I think the difference in our valuation of the original card was the value placed on the heal effect. In my mind, and how I figured the card would be used, the heal would be less relevant. But the more I thought about it the more I realized the heal should be irrelevant as it is not necessary for the flavor. So I removed it. The card now reads "Your hero power is now " Raise Dead." Add 3 random Death Knight cards to your hand."  

Now it is a combination of nourish and shadowform. While that is worth 8 mana and it could be argued both elements are better than those respective cards. In this case and 8 mana, do nothing for your tempo is a massive investment for a single turn, so I think it balances it.