Hearthstone Arena Updates For December 19, 2018 - Rastakhan Bonus, MCT Removed, Some Old Cards Return
A big update came out today for Hearthstone's Arena featuring removal of Mind Control Tech, some old cards returning, and the bonus which makes Rastakhan cards show up more often.
Quote from BlizzardIn this Arena update we’re adjusting the appearance rate of a number of cards, restoring older cards to the Arena, removing a Mind Control Tech from drafts, and adjusting Arena buckets.
Read on for details!
Appearance Rates
Cards from Rastakhan’s Rumble now have a +50% appearance rate in drafts – The bonus appearance rate for the most recent set has returned to freshen up Arena with newer cards.
Draft
A number of cards were removed from Arena for balance reasons in the past. Our new systems provide tools to tweak balance in other ways, and we would prefer to make Arena as true as possible to the cards available in Hearthstone.
The following cards are once again available in Arena picks:
Druid
- Savagery
- Soul of the Forest
- Mark of Nature
Hunter
- Starving Buzzard
- Timber Wolf
- Snipe
Priest
- Mind Blast
- Lightwell
- Inner Fire
Shaman
- Dust Devil
- Totemic Might
- Ancestral Healing
- Windspeaker
Warlock
- Sacrificial Pact
- Sense Demons
- Succubus
Warrior
- Warsong Commander
- Charge
- Rampage
The following card will no longer appear in Arena picks:
Neutral
- Mind Control Tech – Minion based combat plays a major role in the Arena, and Mind Control Tech is a (3) mana card that can unreasonably punish playing multiple minions. While we love that there are cards that help players come back from unfavorable positions, we recognize that the high variance gameplay of Mind Control Tech could create a negative Arena experience. As a result, Mind Control Tech is no longer able to be drafted.
The following cards will remain unavailable in Arena drafts:
- Hero Cards
- Quests
- Whizbang the Wonderful
- Vicious Fledgling
- Ancient Watcher
- Humongous Razorleaf
- Odd/Even Cards
Bucket Adjustments
This is a snapshot of the current Arena buckets. Keep in mind that card promotion or demotion is almost entirely based on whether a card has a very high or very low pick rate. Adjusting buckets helps change the average composition of Arena decks so they feel more varied.
You can download a snapshot of the Arena buckets for this time period on the forums.
Except there is
It is definitely needed. You SHOULD be punished for flooding the board. This idea that there shouldn't be punishment for having 4+ minions is the typical mongo mindset and why declare blockers needs to be a thing.
Yes, but the swing is way too punishing for a 3 mana 3/3
AoEs can punish anyone who swarm the board, not only 4+ minions, sometimes it can be less.
But you know that playing against the class. MCT is neutral so even Hunter or Rogue can pull the trick from nowhere.
Glad Angry Chicken dodged the bullet... this time!
There was this one time i drafted 4 Blessing of Kings + Chicken = very very angry chicken = 12 wins.
Very important tip: do chicken noises every time you win. Bwak Bwak Bwaaak!
... so we removed Mind Control Tech ... what?
I mean, I get that this card is problematic and arena is probably better without it, but doesn't this removal go completely go against what they just mentioned a paragraph before?
MCT wasn't removed for balance. It was removed because it's very unfun to play against.
I'll trade you Mind Control Tech for:
Here's Kripp's reaction:
https://twitter.com/Kripparrian/status/1075468227273256960
Blizz is literally killing it today!
MC Tech is down... good riddance... I hate playing around it in arena... (in constructed it is fine, because my deck is consistent enough to not be punished too badly by it usually, while in Arena it is way too swingy)
Ah, the Kripp patch.
RIP MCTech. I'm conflicted because I've won far too many games off the back of that card that I shouldn't have, but now I don't have to play around game deciding MCT punishes--hallelujah. Regardless, I love that cards that punish large boards or multiple minions like Rabble Rouser or Belligerent Gnome exist. Really appreciate how they're shaking up standard and arena with the nerfs, bucket changes, and MCTech, stuff like this keeps HS feeling fresh and whatnot. Well done Blizzard!
It's great that the new cards have a greater percentage to appear, making the arena look new.
ahahahah no more freewins newbies MCT is gone. For me it's the best thing ever happened to HS so far.
It’s all good except returning useless/pathetic cards they removed almost 2 years ago.. Why?
I am very happy they are open to trying these things, arena drafting is still very much trial and error and this is a good sign for ending up with a healthy arena format.
It's almost like they hired somebody recently that really looks at issues within the multiple game modes and is willing to put the big boy pants on to make the needed changes for the overall health of the game.
Well, that limits the card pool.