Dean Ayala: No More Even & Odd Cards for Witchwood
Many players have been worried that there were going to be too many Even and Odd mechanic cards in the set and up until now, all we knew is that not every class would have them. Thanks to Dean for confirming to PC Gamer in an interview that everything we've seen now is it.
Quote from Dean AyalaAre there more even and odd cards we haven't seen?
There's just the four that we revealed in the video plus the two legendaries. That's the totality. We're going to have a lot of Echo and Rush stuff too, which I think are interesting mechanics.
Here are all the currently revealed cards which make use of the mechanics, starting with the most recent.
Discuss this Card Discuss this Card Discuss this Card
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More Stat Tracking Isn't Needed
In the same interview with PC Gamer, Dean talks about Stat Tracking in China and why he doesn't think the core game needs it.
Quote from Dean AyalaWe have very minimal stat tracking now. We have your level, what your highest arena key is, total wins… and the reason we have that is because we think it's the right amount. It's super high level stuff and there aren't menus of pages tracking how much damage you do on Tuesdays. I think a lot of players do want more data, but I don't think it's necessary for a large majority of the player base. We take the UI very seriously on Hearthstone, where if we can choose not to add another pane then we don't. One of our UI designers always used the phrase "death by a thousand cuts," where you keep adding one more thing…
I don't feel this is a good thing as someone who will never have all the cards hell i can't even play warlock cause i don't own any void lords or cubes unpacking that priest epic will just feel really bad if i dont baku.
I was expecting a class legendary with odd/even effect. It’s surely an archetype that will gain with future expansions like Highlinder Priest...
Justicar saw play because it didn’t have those limitations... the only problem was its body, bud it didn’t matter. Would you really sacrifice half of your class cards just to have a better hp and a cat that draws a card?
I mean, to be honest, Reno wasn't really used in any decks seriously aside from Renolock when it was first released, and that only happened once healbot had rotated and warlock desperately needed healing. It wasn't until Kazakus, Raza, Krul and Solia came into the picture that other decks used Reno (aside from off-meta things like Reno Hunter or Reno Rogue). Reno provided an absurdly strong battlecry and since it was a battlecry, there was still ways to abuse it like with Shadowstep or Manic Soulcaster.
These odd/even cards provide nowhere near the power level that Reno did. The Raza effect was only worth working with because an OTK could be made around it, and now that it's at 1 mana, nobody touches the card at all so I doubt 1 mana hero powers will be broken. The upgraded hero powers are nice but the deck curves out awkwardly and the effects aren't drastic enough to make up for the loss of cards. Since the effect is a one-shot effect, there's no way to cheese out extra value from the legendaries and any benefit has to be made solely from finding synergy with using your hero power. Now perhaps an inspire-based wild deck will find some good value, but having these new hero powers barely improves upon using your regular hero power in inspire decks.
I’m super disappointed that there aren’t more odd/even cards. Reno was worth building a singletons deck around because a full heal without loss of tempo is huge against aggro decks. Support from Kazakus and the three class legendaries allowed for huge incentive to build that way.
Unless we see some massive hero power support cards that are viable (think Raza or Coldarra Drake style), odd/even won’t be worth running over regular decks as those synergy cards are all just good cards and don’t provide broken effects. I may try the even decks in wild with some inspire cards for fun but I can’t imagine it will be any good. I think tempting us with synergy cards and then making nothing else huge to help was a frustrating decision.
Thank god. This odd and even mechanic is the most ridiculous thing I ever saw.
So, let me get this straight. Blizzard is expecting players to build a Mage deck without Frostbolt and Fireball? Ha ha ha ha ha... wait they’re serious?
They can still make odd cost damage dealing spells to support it... But yeah, it does suck.
Yes actually. That's why they printed Black Cat and other even/odd cards, especially for classes which won't be good without some incentive. Even shaman looks terrible, Odd Mage doesn't have burst, most of druid's good card are even. With these cards printed, due to their powerful effects, these decks could be tested. Not saying they will be good, but it'll be worth experimenting.
I like that they aren't over pushing the mechanic, but somehow, not giving at least one odd/even card to each class doesn't seem right. Unless they feel Warlock, Paladin, Warrior, Rogue, and Hunter are ahead of the other four, so the other four need the help? That doesn't seem right. Wait, maybe losing a card slot to one of these weakens the class? Or it could be a little of one (crappy odd/even card weakens) or the other (stronger one strengthens)... but Mage is strong and got a decent one, as did Priest. Shaman's is ok but not what I would call a balancing card given how far it has to catch up. Druid? I cant tell if this card is better or worse than average at the moment, really. That's my main point, I guess: without the whole context (the rest of the set) we just cant make sense of that much yet.
Seems like a bit of a cop out due to all the frantic response from players wondering how this would change things. I brought it up earlier and got bashed, but I'm guessing they had many more planned, if not...... wow.
So Gloom Stag will be 100(%) dust and Black Cat cannot match Azure Drake. (At least for now.)
Possibly unpopular opinion: I don't think that the even/odd mechanic needs that much direct support so I don't mind that they're not making more of those cards. They can just support the mechanic in a "natural" way by printing good even/odd cost cards.
Although I do see the problem that there's probably not enough incentive for some classes to try out the mechanic as they're losing much more than they're gaining from the mana cost restrictions but I still feel this is the better solution than to print multiple support cards for each class and making it the main theme of this set.
But maybe that's just me.
yeah but good cards are good without having to be in even/odd.
Good for us. We don't need to be in the situation like: I want to play Genn or Baku. There are 5 Epic, 10 Rare, 15 Common cards for that deck, let's craft all of them. Or I open this Epic card synergies with Genn/Baku but I don't have the legendary. What do I do with it?
6 cards... Only four classes get a direct incentive to build their decks this way... With one extra card... What are you doing Blizz? This is going to flop harder than the joust mechanic.
Oh... Okay, well... Damn.
A number of people expected more and didn't want them; alas I hoped for more and didn't get them :(
Would have liked one for the Warrior, at least, considering Odd Quest Warrior was one of the advertised decks in an earlier video. Maybe it will be perfectly fine without, but I'm worried the deck is being hyped up. I'd be really disappointed to see it die off a week after release after everyone realizes it sucks...
Pretty safe to say now that there is no reason to gimp your deck with only cards of a specific mana cost then.
Sure there are obviously going to be more cards that is going to fit in to the decks with the right cost, but judging from all previous expansions there are never enough new cards in 1 expansion to fill all those gaps left by the current "vital" cards with the opposite odd/even mana cost needed for these new cards.
And without these special conditions being able to be met in a decent deck they will all just collect dust, like the Freeze Shaman cards.