Mike Donais Slams Nonsense, Talks About Cubelock Power and Nerfs
Yesterday afternoon, Hearthstone's Principal Game Designer, Mike Donais, responded to a post on reddit which claimed they fought 17 Cubelock decks in a row and proved them wrong. Through internal statistics, Donais discovered that no one in all of Hearthstone fought that many Cubelock decks in a row that day and that there are indeed better decks than Cubelock.
Here's what Mike had to say about Cubelock's power level and nerfs in Hearthstone.
- Cubelock is currently ranked as the 12th best deck in their system.
- The deck will be stronger after the card nerfs arrive due to no cards within the deck being nerfed.
- Cubelock is challenging to play so it may improve more as players get better at it, though it may also get countered more if popularity increases.
- If Warlock is a big problem post-patch and players have had time to adjust to it, they'll evaluate it then.
- Win rate is not the only factor in deciding when cards get nerfed. How players feel about cards matters too.
Here are Mike's full posts which the above points were taken from.
Quote from Mike DonaisI just checked the data, and no one played 17 cubelocks in a row today.
If you are indeed having trouble with Cubelock there are several decks that beat it consistently right now. It is currently the 12th best deck.
I did enjoy the title of your post though. (Source)
A couple people asked why the stats I mentioned don't metch VS power ranking so I looked up VS 79 and across all rankings Control Warlock is the 10th best deck. I assume they mix control and cube warlock in their stats. We have decks broken out a bit more but 10th gives you the general idea.
Obviously after the nurfs it will be stronger since none of the cards in cubelock are being nurfed and that concerns me but it is a pretty challenging deck with a lot of opportunities to show off player skill. People will eventually get better at playing it, but people will also put in more weapon destruction or silence cards if it gets more popular.
I am excited to see what people figure out after the patch. If Warlock is a big problem after people have some time to adjust and tune the new decks then we will look into it. I have said many times before that win rate is not the most important factor in our nurf decisions. How people feel matters more, so we will listen to players and make decisions based on that, just like we did in the past with Quest Rogue and Patron Warrior. (Source)
I'll miss the cube, though.
Don't mind me, just randomly commenting here for a secret.
The reason why cubelock is just the 10th "strongest" deck is because every player know it's the most strongest deck theoretically, so a lot of player is playing it. But because it is not the easiest (I'm not saying it's hard to pilot), they make lots of mistakes, so the winrate tends to fall of.
typical HS community tbh
Wow, I had no idea that there were at least 12 archetypes played on ladder...geez Mike what the heck?
"Cubelock is hard to play" riiiiiiiiiight ok sure buddy I'm sure quest roque was hard too...
I am sorry, but saying that this Cube-Lock deck is not that strong is ridiculous. I just faced what ended up being the SAME PERSON playing Cube-Lock two times in a row. Now I know the power level of the deck and was playing An Elemental Keleseth Rogue. The first game, he drew the NUTS and I could NOT win. We are talking Weapon on 5 with Voidlord, cube and dark pact all in hand. Second game cues up. He draws NOTHING he barely plays a minion, I draw pretty well myself, keleseth by turn 8 and I was giving his face a handsome beating while reserving resources to remove eventual big minions. (for reference he had his weapon on 5 with no demon in hand for another 6 turns) BOARD CLEARS GALORE. Obviously from this post I lost both games. Even with my opponent drawing so poorly he healed for a total of 47 points of healing that game...while being able to clear my board each turn. HOW is this a balanced class lol ( yes I have faced more than 2 cube locks obviously) just surprised we did not see an increase in the cost of dark pact or lackey with the nerf to aggro decks. Thoughts?
It feels oppressive when you lose to it, like in these two examples, but it's just doesn't win often enough to be a top tier deck. It gets beat by zoo, by jade druid (hard), big spell mage, control warlock decks, a variety of priest decks.
This is the type of deck you play a longer game against and slowly realize your are blocked out of winning once you see they have the right cards that you hoped they wouldn't have. Decks that players concede earlier against win more often than Cube Lock.
Looking at only the days since the nerfs, murloc paladin has performed as the clear best deck at both the legend and normal ranks. That's a deck that players should be complaining about if anything.
Yeah that's exactly what we want more Jade Druid everywhere. C'mon get some common sense.
I think the main problem here is Voidlord .
First of all 6 18 stats for 9 mana is pretty good .
Second of all is a death rattle so it it's hard to get rid off and has synergy with n zoth and sacrifice effects.
Third of all and most important is a demon so it has insane synergy with goldan and other warlock cards.
I think Blizzard could solve the most of the warlock problems by simply removing the demon tag from Voidlord.
While that would be a solution, the card has a demon name and looks like a demon. I would change the Deathrattle into a Battlecry.
These void beings are technically not demons in wow, you will know that if u played wow recently, read argus quest text, and read chronicles vol 1, in which they polished their lore. Although they can be controlled by warlock, demons and burning legion to serve, they are not demons themselves.
Why the downvotes here? Cubelock is about the easiest deck there is. Play Lackey, Cube some demons, go face, play guldan, heal for like 50 health in a game. Seriously?
Played 5 games today...played 5 Warlocks...just sayin!