Hearthpwn

My presumption (I don't think there's been confirmation) is that you'll have them as long as they remain in the Core set.  Perhaps some would get moved out of Core (and Standard as a whole), but if so they'd almost surely be replaced by new free cards.  I bet anything moved out of Core/Standard would need to be crafted to use in Wild.

Most of them are probably safe for now.  They're only a year old, and most things have been going on a 2-year cycle.  I certainly can't see Reckoning being removed.  I wouldn't be shocked with, say, Illidari Inquisitor.  If Bliz felt that they didn't want such a big card going face in 2022, they might remove it from Core and Standard, where if you wanted it to use in Wild you'd need to craft it.  But if they did this, I'd strongly suspect that some different free big demon would replace it.

If they felt Reckoning was too boring, they might replace it with a Paladin secret they felt was stronger.  You'd need to craft Reckoning if you wanted it in Wild, but you'd get a replacement secret for free.

I'd be surprised to see anything leave Core without being replaced by something else which was also free.

But it's also worth noting that churn should happen.  There haven't been too many perpetual Core cards so far, and it's only been a year, but the goal is to eventually see stuff like Taelan getting swapped out (not yet, he's too new, but maybe in another two years) for some new neutral Legendary minion, maybe a 3rd round of the Dragon Aspects, and so forth.  The point of a Core set like this is so that it can change.  The old model of the never-changing Classic and Basic sets lead to a lot of really boring staple cards that Blizzard had to keep nerfing since they didn't feel they could remove them.  Now, the structure of Core is different, and the devs could replace problematic (or just overplayed and repetitive) cards with entirely new ones, with strays from older sets which never had a place to shine (I'm looking at you, Coldara Drake), and keep the game more vibrant. 

Maestra hotfix?  Let me read on...

...and it makes Maestra stronger.

Le sigh.

The Maestra of the Masquerade interaction with Wildpaw Gnoll (and Double Agent, to a lesser extent) is really quite bullshit.  The Gnolls are probably fair without it, if you have to add cards from other classes to your hand through various actual burgle effects.  I don't mind free 4/5 rush minions, if you have to go through a reasonable effort to get them.

Devout Pupil, for example, can be really strong, but you have to actually work for it over a few turns to get them free.  That's a semblance of balance.  Simply having Maestra in your deck to get free Gnolls, however, is not balanced, because there's no effort.  It just happens, but it shouldn't.

Quote from MightyMaus >>

Quote from MyDude33 >>

 Buddy, you just don't understand what they mean. It's more about how they match you with people. Once you find where you're supposed to be in terms of your ranking then you will likely have a win rate close to 50% with some variance because the game mode has a lot of luck involved. This is because you will simply be matched with similarly skilled players ("Worthy Opponents"). 

My rank is around 6500. But if I was able to play players with a ranking of 2500 I guarantee my win rate would be 80% or higher and then taper off as my ranking rises and close in on the 50% mark. Simply by playing against people closer to my level. Not by some forced algorithm. 

 As a developer, I DO understand what it means. The Luck stat itself is literally rigging the game for or against you depending on how well you're doing. Then the pay to get 2 more choices increases your ability to get a better hero by 50%. It's not nefarious, It's not an insult to the game or anything sneaky. It's something they themselves have discussed and a norm in auto-battlers. I don't though, understand how you guys can't understand it.  

Paying to get a 50% chance to get a better hero increases your chance to win exponentially, which is rigging. Adding a luck stat to keep you at 50% is rigging. Even pushing you to play against people better or worse than you based on your w/l and rating is rigging. It's literally all forced algorithms. 

 I think you're not demonstrating properly the effect of having 4 rather than 2 choices.

You move from the average "best" hero in a 2 choice being the hero at the 67th percentile, to the hero at the 80th percentile.  You go from an expected best pick being about the 23rd best hero to the 14th best hero.  About 9 ranks better.  That's good, but it's not really game-breaking.

In terms of not getting a very bad hero, you go from a 25% chance of two heroes in the bottom half of the distribution, down to 6.25%, which is really noticeable.  You'll very rarely get screwed with the pass (which is really low gold cost, too).

However, let's look at the chance of getting a hero in the top 10% of heroes (that is, the top 7).  For a 2-pick, you'll have a 19% chance (1 - [0.9 ^ 2]), so about 1 in 5 games you'll get a top-7 hero.  For a 4-pick, this is about a 34% chance (1 - [0.9 ^ 4]).  Once in every 3 games.  Noticable, but not horrifying, and the gold cost is pretty easy for anyone who plays even a little.

There's real Pay-To-Win issues in some games.  There are major abuse issues at Blizzard.  Battlegrounds is not a game toxic with P2W.

Battlegrounds has no real rigging (some folks just don't understand how Elo and MMR work).  There is real rigging in loot boxes/packs--things that actually cost people money.

This thread is the most whiny distraction I've ever seen.

Seems like it's more of a buff to mage hero card buff than Wildfire, per se.  Wildfire without a mage hero swap remains essentially the same.

Oh, quests certainly have to rotate in April.  Are there other problems?  Sure, but like Genn and Baku, they just need to be gone early.

Beyond that, yeah, some basic nerfs are would probably be helpful to Wild.

It kinda seems Rastakhan's Rumble tier.  Looking at previous 3rd-in-cycle expansions, Descent of Dragons had Galakrond, and Darkmoon Faire had corrupt and the new Old Gods, and both of those had what feels like a lot more of an impact on the game and the meta.  Going back further, Kobolds and Catacombs just had a lot of strong cards.  Rumble followed the potent Mechs of Boomsday, and the game-shaping Genn and Baku of Witchwood.

Alterac comes on the heels of Stormwind Questlines, and it just doesn't stack up.  These questlines have got to be just about one of the worst card cycles Blizzard has made, since they've been very powerful, as well as very repetitive.  Boring and predictable gameplay that often wins is just about one of the worst things for a card game.  Blizzard had better rotate them early, like Genn and Baku (again, that combination of powerful with repetitive and predictable).

If the order had been flipped, Alterac as the 2nd expansion in the cycle, I think it'd probably have fared better.  The hero cards are kind of interesting, but they aren't as game-winning as the questlines, so who cares?

Quest simply have to go with the rotation, like Genn/Baku.  They present essentially the same problem: incredibly strong effects, but also incredibly repetitive gameplay.  Just about all games against any quest play out in the same manner, and that's boring as well as unbalanced.

I mean, thumbs up to Kasparov for getting paid.

Almost like a more flexible Phantom Militia--don't have to play everything in a single turn.  I kinda liked PM back in the day.  Today?...

I think I like it less.  5 damage might be far too little in a lot of circumstances, and Reckless Flurry had a great risk-reward thing going on, IMHO, where giving up a huge armor stack could be pretty FeelsBadMan.  This just kinda feels more linear.  Always the same damage.  Either you can afford it or you can't.

But that's just, like, my opinion.

Shado-Pan Rider's kid brother.

Guys, guys... remember when they nerfed Ancient of Lore?

Deathstalker Rexxar grind games were *F*U*N* from both sides, IMHO.

One thing to note: you don't have to play the quest on turn 1, so you could still use damage-based removal if you delay playing the quest until you know you can save the Phase Two proc for after your hero card.

I think it'll be bad at winning games, but the rare OTKs you might be able to pull off will be glorious.