Hearthstone

Shaman card: Healing Wave. 3 mana, restore 7 health; Joust: restore 14 health instead.

Holy crap, that card is amazing. They're literally giving Shaman everything they've ever asked for in this expansion. Card draw! Healing! A way to choose your hero power totem (that'll never be played)!


Meanwhile, I just had a 7 win streak as Priest on ladder. In related news, I went 7 games without seeing a Face Hunter on ladder.

KysenMurrin wrote:Meanwhile, I just had a 7 win streak as Priest on ladder. In related news, I went 7 games without seeing a Face Hunter on ladder.

Did you mean to repeat yourself?

Well, they just revealed a legendary to craft day-one.

Varian is nuts and OP and completely broken.

He's pretty good, yeah. Rhonin is a little underwhelming next to him, but I guess still okay in some spell decks.


Seems like I'm probably gonna get a good chunk of the cards on day one. 50 packs from the promo bundle, enough Amazon coins for 40 more (and trickle down from the coin return thingy will bring that up to 60+ (if it goes back to the old return level I can get 76)), currently at 2000 gold (might make it 3000 by release), and I've got enough dust for one legendary right now.

Since the voting's over, and there's a big stream event on Friday, I think we're seeing the full set this week. Probably sometime next week we'll get the patch and pre-launch event, then the full launch the week after.

And I just had an 8 win streak, with only two losses after the 7 win streak. I'm having so much fun with this Priest deck - currently ~70% win rate, gone from rank 18 to 11.



Kel'Thuzad is possibly the least useful card in the deck, but I haven't thought of something to replace it with. The Dragonkin are just there because I needed a 4 drop, but they can do pretty well sometimes.

Rhonin is actually ok. Decently designed card, at least. Won't craft him (at least to start), but wouldn't be disappointed at all to open him.

I won't have nearly that much to start with - will be up to 2k-3k gold, but not spending money. Do have about 5k dust or so though so I can craft anything that looks completely bonkers (like, say, Varian ).

He goes right into my CW deck perfectly. I play it way more midrange as it is with minions over Brawls and no dumb tech nonsense (so no BGH or Harrison). Shredders are actually really good in CW (or Taz is fine too if you prefer), and I'm experimenting with Feugen/Stalagg right now. Stalagg is quite strong as the 4/7 cleans up a lot of small things really well. The 7/4 of Feugen is pretty bad, but he isn't awful to play out onto an empty board and trades with Shieldmaidens/Loatheb/Belchers at least.

Gotten Thaddius once - against Control Pali where he had to face-tank Feugen with a Truesilver, then Equality/Conscrate the Thaddius off (with an otherwise clear board on my side), that's a good trade for me. Gotten the "2nd half" silenced a couple times too, where I played Sylvanas once right after, and KT once right after. Works for me.

Edit: That looks cool Kysen. I don't quite get the Dragonkin Sorcerer - only PWS and Velen's for it, I think I'd use Taz there instead (who makes KT _way_ better, BTW). I actually like KT in that type of deck, he just auto-wins games too much. I also like Sylv over Emperor - has ET really been that important/good without stuff like Mind Control in there?

You're right, Thaurissan has barely been used. I usually just dominate the board with Deathlord/Sludge Belcher/Blademaster. I didn't use Taz'dingo because I already have 4 good taunts, and I decided it was Dragonkin or Shredder - and the Dragonkin gets perceived as a threat and draws out removal. I've won a couple of games when I got one buffed to 6/10 with Velen's on turn 4 or 5 and the enemy had no answer.

I've barely actually had the chance to play Kel'Thuzad. Once or twice he's secured what was already a strong lead. I think maybe if the deck has one weak point, it's the lack of Shadow Word: Death or something similar...



As for cards in the expac - I would've had loads more dust, but I spent the couple months up to the announcement using every bit I got to make epics and rares that were missing from my collection, even the really crappy unplayable ones. Haven't filled my whole collection yet, but I'm very close (non-golden. I've only kept one golden card). Mostly missing bad legendaries now. I'm going to resist the urge to DE bad cards for new ones, this time.

Well, that's everything.

I won't change my view that the designers all need to be fired and replaced.

Not excited for much, and there were an awful lot of terrible design decisions. Bane of Beasts is god-awful design (and probably OP), Inspire is a decent mechanic but the cards with it are all pretty universally overpriced (exceptions being the Druid one which is legit good, and maybe the Shaman one - we'll see). Lazy (and greedy) making the new strictly-betters instead of just modifying the existing basic cards. Not sure what in the hell they were thinking at all with the warlock stuff.

A few individually good/interesting things, but the set as a whole is still disappointing and terrible.

Overall I think this set will be good for the game. They didn't buff already-strong decks (see Warrior, Face Hunter, and Warlock), and they gave tools to increase the deck diversity in the game.

Joust and Inspire will mostly fall flat this expansion - it may be a case where they need to learn from this and print better cards next time, like they've done with overload minions.

Things that will appear from this expansion: Beast Druid, Dragon Priest, heavy Ramp Druid, Control Shaman. Not all of those will be good, but they'll be mid tier at least.

Things that'll see some improvement: Pirate Rogue, Control Hunter, Control Paladin, Dragon Warrior, midrange Druid. Not sure how much better they'll get.

Aggro decks did not need help here; Warrior and Warlock didn't need help in constructed. So Blizzard focused this expac on some minor anti-aggro stuff and bringing up a few new archetypes to help diversify the meta.

Unfortunately we're probably stuck with a completely unchanged Patron Warrior as the #1 deck for another six months unless they nerf something. I mean, Bear Trap and Bolf totally counter the deck, but they're not enough.

So what's everyone planning to try out when the expac hits?

I've mentioned I'll give a ramp Druid a go with Aviana and Astral Communion; I've been thinking more on that, and I've decided Justicar Trueheart could be a decent card in that deck - in a topdeck situation after getting your early 10 mana crystals, modifying your hero power into a Claw would be a big improvement.

I'm also thinking about having a little fun with Murloc Priest, mainly because I think getting a Murloc Warleader on the board then casting Confuse would be hilarious.

Hmm, not too much.

Some updates to a couple of current decks:
- Mid shaman gets the Golem and Totemic, maybe Valiant. T1 Chow, T2 Golem is a gigantic board for turn 2.

- Mid-range Hunter gets the insane Bane of Beasts. Will probably have to change Shredders to Snapjaws in order to guarantee the battlecry, but that deck is already so strong and a card that is "5-mana, win game 60% of the time" doesn't help much.

The "new" one I'd like to try uses one of the actual well-designed cards of the set (Twilight Guardian), but that thing is unfortunately epic so is likely off the table for a bit. Consort is an amazingly strong card, but there wasn't enough low to support it. There is now, and I think Dragon Paladin is going to be quite good.


As far as Patron goes, did you see the Team League game where Trump lost from 50+ health and a completely clear board? They're going to have to do something about it - the options are either changing Battle Rage to not count the hero, or change Emperor to start of turn instead of end of turn.

(Neither Bear Trap nor Bolf help, either. Bear Trap pops after the attack, it doesn't intercept like Noble Sacrifice does, and Bolf just either gets Executed or is a 0/9 Taunt for 6, which isn't great.)

KysenMurrin wrote:So what's everyone planning to try out when the expac hits?

I'll see if new cards will be enough to make Ancestor's Call Malygos and Inner Fire Priest workable. Both of these decks are ridiculously powerful when stars align, but they lack consistency.

Don't know... none of the new cards really make me feel want to get new packs. I might probably just stick with old packs to try get the few classic leges I'm missing

Yeah, I will be trying Malygos Shaman too, Passionario. I liked it before, and with card draw, healing, and more board clear it'll be stronger.

On another subject relating to the expansion, does anyone else find it odd that the "discard a card" and the "empty hand" mechanics are on two different classes?

Jabari wrote:As far as Patron goes, did you see the Team League game where Trump lost from 50+ health and a completely clear board?

If a combo deck is allowed to draw all of its 30 cards without being forced to use its combo pieces as removal in process, than said combo deck will win the game. That's its whole point.

Getting really eager to try this stuff out. I have a hunch that some Inspire cards will be useful in the Astral Communion Druid (Savage Combatant, Nexus Champion Saraad), and want to try it.

This week's joust is making me realize how awful the Joust mechanic is.
Acidmaw + Release the hounds is also insane

Yeah, unfortunately that's why they had to make Acidmaw terrible. (See also Acidmaw+Powershot, Acidmaw+Dreadscale. If the card had fewer drawbacks (stats, cost, killing friendly minions) those would be crazy strong.)

Passionario wrote:If a combo deck is allowed to draw all of its 30 cards without being forced to use its combo pieces as removal in process, than said combo deck will win the game. That's its whole point.

Ah, I suppose that's true. Good point. It just looks obnoxious.

(That's also why I build my CW deck with a whole lot more pressure than most!)

Worldie wrote:This week's joust is making me realize how awful the Joust mechanic is.
Acidmaw + Release the hounds is also insane

Meh, it's a 10-mana board clear, and you can't play anything big if they leave your Acidmaw up either. That's way worse than Equality/Consecrate for one.

KysenMurrin wrote:Getting really eager to try this stuff out. I have a hunch that some Inspire cards will be useful in the Astral Communion Druid (Savage Combatant, Nexus Champion Saraad), and want to try it.

Saraad is just too slow. Savage Combatant is a legit good card, but I think I like Ramp with 4 Wild Growths just better than trying Communion shenanigans.

Still a horrible terrible bad expansion. Bane of Beasts might get banned for tournaments, it's that bad for the game.

I just don't get how you can make Astral Communion work. Ok you get 10 mana at turn 3-4, but you discard your entire hand, so very likely you wont even be able to use that 10 mana.

The deck will have Nourish, Ancient of Lore, and Wild Growth for card draw, at minimum. That's also why I'm wanting to put in things like Savage Combatant and Justicar Trueheart - if all you can do is play one card and hero power until you get your card draw, having the card make your hero power better lets you stay in the game against your opponent's lower-mana minions. And Nexus-Prince Saraad would help with refilling your hand too.

You don't have to actually use all 10 mana straight away, just consitently use more mana than your opponent can, and overwhelm them. Pumping out minions like Doctor Boom and Ysera from turn 5 onwards could be pretty powerful.

I'm not saying it will definitely work - it could be (current) Malygos Shaman levels of slow and inconsistent - but it's worth a try.

I wanted to put my thoughts on the Astral Communion deck into a more coherent form, so I did this:
http://www.wowhead.com/deck=123547

I'm still not convinced I'm right about Savage Combatant and Justicar Trueheart. They may be too weak.

I don't really know... It feels so horribly RNG: you either manage to play Astral Communion in first 2-3 turns AND then also topdeck something strong AND it doesnt get removed by a cheap removal or silence right after, or you just... lose.
Not something I'd like to play, I hate RNG elements and this deck is possibly more RNG than an entire ogre deck.

I tried to compensate for the weaknesses pretty heavily. The deck peaks at 4-5 mana, there are multiple alternative ramp cards if you don't get Communion, and multiple ways to generate cards after discarding the hand. Almost everything in the deck can be played immediately if you're topdecking, and a lot of them generate more cards. The worst things to play out then get removed imediately are Savage Combatant and Justicar Trueheart, which may not survive to the final iteration of the deck. I've already swapped Nefarian for an Ancient of War.

But yeah, it might not work because I've gone too midrange and not enough big stuff, or it might not because the early game sucks, or it might not because Zoo or Mech Mage type decks will flood the board. Won't know until I try.

Is it a impression of mine, or the mage deck is like, a million times stronger this brawl.