Dust bunny - Probably too expensive. The only real thing you want here is coin and you can easily get it from greedy partner, so whats this suppose to do other than as bait?
Flikering Lightbot - Too few holy spells to make this realistically good. Only if makiroll is still in standard. A highlander card at best
Twisted pack - Best 'pack' card so far. But rogue already have tons of ways to generate them and every last one of them are more consistent than this card
Murloc growfin - Respectable card because the token has rush and two 1/1s on one is good
Rocket Hopper - Oh my, 5 mana 10/10. Unplayable. Next.
Wave of Nostalgia - 99% of the time bloodlust would be better. Here's the bigger problem, this card has a chance of screwing you over since it also affects the opponent's board.
Holy glowsticks - Would only be respectable if its possible to cram loads of cheap holy cards into an aggro paladin, and Im not seeing how thats possible.
Dubious purchase - Dangerous in combo rogue. Unfortunately for this card, the current meta is a rogue that piles so much shit in hand that a card like this is an active detriment
Whack-a-gnoll - Had this card been a holy spell it'll be the catalyst to seeing the other holy synergy cards work. Unfortunately it isnt, so this card is just acceptable but I cant see where it fits in paladin decks. Pally weapons tend to be expensive, and since you can tutor weapons, wouldnt it be better just to do that?
So murloc growfin wins this round because the other cards arent up to scratch in my opinion.
The Replicator-inator - A sort of card that I'll wait patiently for pros to completely abuse. However, I will say that it doesnt really impress me at first glance. Being able to copy a minion just like that is impressive, but the cost of this minion + the idea that you'll need to keep it in hand until the exact cards comes into your hand makes me a tad unoptimistic.
Building-block golem - Is it just me, or is this card looking broken? Probably not as OP as I would think but it does put plenty of stats on board plus a rush minion at the cost of 5. Either heartstone's power level has scaled to such heights that even cards like these are unplayable, or it really does look as powerful as I think it is.
Gibbering Reject - Now look here team5. Its not like youve never printed cards that put two 3/3s on board at 3, so why the hell is this card costing 4? As though as such a thing has any chance of surviving anyway, and you still need to have a weapon in hand to trigger it. This card is effectively worthless in competitive because look at it.
Part Scrapper - Its that card that makes you want to uninstall the game when it happens to you. Its purposefully made to be powerful because otherwise no one will bother to play it since reno warrior is just way better in any case. But that doesnt excuse the fact that a card like this is just toxic.
Product 9 - Probably wouldnt see much play in the current meta because hunters all about playing by tempo, and Im not seeing any possibility of secret hunter being good. Even if we assume this card is playable, its nearly never played on curve and relies very heavily on other cards being played (and triggered) first.
Darkmoon magician - Its yet another casino card that practically is unplayable in competitive but hell it'll make players try. At least there's little chance of it killing itself owing to the elusive tag but really, if such a card was viable then surely tentacle mage would have already been a thing.
Wilderness pack - No clue as to why the cards granted cant just stay in your hand because at its current iteration its practically useless. Once a while it grants you exactly what you need but 90% of the time you'd just play what is playable, end turn, and get your arse whipped. Would have been playable if the cards actually stick to your hand but as it stands its just a highlander card thats played for its own sake
And finally...pro gamer. The lastest of the miniset epics. Does this one suck as per tradition?
Well, I'll say its not shit but its not the 2nd coming of Christ neither. What it is, is simply an a draw option for a class/achetype that would otherwise not have any, like zarimi priest. Plus, there's always the chance of trapping your opponent into a lose-lose situation so there's that.
Probably playable, which is the most charitable thing you can say for miniset epics I guess. Not gonna be surprised if it neverplayed like all its predecessors.
Alright, mini set coming. At least we only need to deal with the current meta for likely another week or so. Here's my thoughts;
Gigantify - Probably not anywhere near as good as miniaturize, which if we have to be honest, isnt exactly making waves itself. So main problem to this keyword: its high cost makes it only really viable if it has taunt/rush, and its only really playable in midrange decks or otherwise decks that can afford to discount the costs.
Puppetmaster Dorian - Looks broken, especially with cards that tutor like caricature artist etc. But looking at the meta these days, I cant see a world where you wait until turn 8 with two cards in hand trying to scam a combo out, and not die in the process. That being said, mini set legendaries always tend to warp the meta around so Im fairly sure this card would be good, just not sure if it would stay good since its equally true most miniset legendaries tend to also get nerfed in their lifetime.
Puppet theater - The sort of card that would make you tear your hair off your scalp because it more or less means any strategy that involves a wincon attached to a minion will immediately be invalidated, unless the win comes immediately the turn after its played. The only mitigating circumstance I can see is the fact that this card virtually does nothing otherwise, so in most matches its fairly worthless.
Other cards perhaps not really that interesting. Snuggle bear looks okay, overgrown beanstalk is a build around card that may help drum druid but is perhaps too slow, and toyrantus is the sort of card that'll never see play.
I fully symphatize with your decision to let go of hearthstone because if I have to be perfectly honest the game has gone stale for quite some time now, and it always seem to me like its hanging on the edges of being let go. All that was needed was a slight nudge, and blizzard duly provided it when they raised the quest requirements for weeklies.
For my own part, Im staying for now. I play enough hearthstone that the increases in quest requirements dont really affect me, and if Im feeling particularly unmotivated to play hearthstone I'll play a few busted decks in wild (being in bronze rank, getting wins there is very nearly automatic) just to get the quests done quickly.
Just a small comment, I find it a bit surprising is how much stick that 'play 32 miniature cards' is getting when in reality playing 75 battlecry cards and 750 mana is far more time consuming than even the 'win 10 games' could ever muster.
But I do worry for hearthstone's future. Its not likely to get any better; the game is not really evolving so much as it is just repeating itself but at a higher power level. The game is getting progressively more expensive to have fun in, and hearthstone being what it is, its fairly time consuming even for aggro players.
In my opinion, hearthstone may need a reset button. Either retiring cards, scaling back the power level substantially, or simply just making hearthstone 2. All of those require great amounts of planning and manpower, and Im not optimitic that it'll ever happen. More likely hearthstone succumbs to a slow death, Im not exactly sure whether I'll be happy to be released or sad that one of my hobbies just go bust.
Shroomscavate and deputization aura effectively got nuked, because I cant see them see any play for their effects anymore. Its is really kind of funny, how shroomscavate doesnt really have any shaman connections anymore and is now just a vanilla exacavate card. Probably one of the weakest excavate card now.
Other nerfs are fine. Odyn needed a nerf because if it wasnt it'll probably continue to dominate warrior decks until it rotates. Im not exactly sure how anything can rock it off warrior's boat, except printing out more and more disgustingly powerful cards because at its base Odyn is just the perfect warrior card.
Aftershocks though, a bit of a hard nerf just because it does well with drawing. Effectively this card is just trash now, because there's simply much better clear tools than this.
Certain things shouldve been addressed, like ticking module which seems almost an auto pick for nearly any and all zilliax. But Im less happy about the nerfs for paladin. All they needed to do is just remove windfury from shroomscavate. Even the plushy nerf seems like a nerf candidate simply because it has been performing well but not in consideration for what it offers the class.
Other nerfs;
- Awakening tremors might see the tokens be 3/1s. Any mana nerf here will immediately nuke the card
- Thrall's gift will almost certainly remove lightning bolt from the list of selections. Its quite funny actually how easily shaman just OTK people with some of the cheapest deck ever because of the easy availability of damage spells.
- Odyn will be nerfed to 9. I cant see how team5 can balance it other than increasing its mana cost.
Its not and probably never have been curated lets be honest. The achievements from the very beginning is easily 95% grind, some of them being so egregious that its indefensible. The one that require us to use the locations 150 times is one of the worst I have in memory.
Far as Im concerned, this is 100% a good move from team5.
Ive played a variation of BBU, even BBF, before which focuses on handbuff. Its okay, but the reason why it could never be anything more than a niche tier 3 deck is because its either too slow, or you run out of stuff too quickly. Not to mention that against control decks its a nightmare, which is why I gave up trying to make the deck work.
Youre right about zombietank being a good add there, because the taunt makes up a bit for the slowness, but Im still not convinced it'll be a deck. Maybe rotation would make it more viable. We'll see.
DK has a hero card, so that's the top in terms of power level for this class. Unfortunately, not so much for the other cards.
Dr. Stitchensew - How this works is presumably that the 5 cost minion will spawn the 3 cost etc. So essentially this is one extremely sticky minion that will always guarantee something on board at the end of next turn. Ive no real problem with this card other than redundancy, because most DK decks prob dont need stuff like this outside of maybe unholy DK. Just as a comparison point, when Obsidian Revenant was revealed I was pretty hyped because I thought that card was the apex of what can be done with extremely sticky minions, and that card had taunt with a better statline. That card saw zero play.
The one good thing about this card. Its undead and therefore works well with Sinister Soulcage, making it perhaps impossible to ignore.
Rainbow Seamstress - If ever there's a DK card thats blatantly a rainbow rune card without being tagged as such. Its worthless outside of rainbow, the bonus effect is simply not gonna cut it. You can put it in plague DK like some sort of psuedo Restless Mummy, and that's about it. Quite excellent in rainbow DK though Im not sure what you'll remove from that deck to fit this in.
Silk Stitching - Poor card in so many respect that its baffling. Seems like what you get if youre desperate for a discover spell card. Need a target to work, need the target to die before working, and then the spell it cast is targeted at random. How much further downhill can this card go?
Threads of Despair - The best board clear DK might ever receive. A shame that it'll also destroy your side of the board, but this is a 1 mana card that wipes the board most of the time. There's simply no reason this card wouldnt see play in competitive at some point.
Rambunctious Stuffy - The only thing keeping this little pup from ruling the world is the lack of frost spells.
Shambling Zombietank - One of the weirdest cards Ive ever seen printed. Its almost like its entirely here just to spend corpses and yet because it has taunt and the effect is to give you another taunt, you simply cannot deny that in the late game it'll buff up your Climactic Necrotic Explosion and present two taunts to protect your face.
Can just play it in the early game for a 3/2 on board. Though admitably it bricks in the midgame since you'll much rather be saving corpses for Corpse Bride or Malignant Horror
The main bit about reno is arcane shots, which practically enables them to play way more cards than they perhaps should be able to. Doesnt even need to be a reno deck, because Ive seen priest draw their entire deck fairly convincingly. It worked with warrior, it would in my opinion work with priest as well.
With hedanis, you'd need quite a lot of stuff to happen for the combo to work consistently, whereas for reno its really just playing one card. Even if youre not on arcane shots, getting a few hp out is still good value for a control deck.
The current overheal priest is good enough in my opinion, doesnt need raza or Papercraft Angel for it to work properly.
Right, hunter cards. My general opinion is that hunter is not going to have a very fun expansion coming up next. Cute cards though :)
Hemet, Foam Marksman - Well well. This is the sort of card thats supposed to be broken as fuck. Basically a card that gives you good reload, at discounted prices, hemet himself is a mere 5 mana. So what's the issue here? Let's start with the most obvious: the condition is nigh impossible to do against control decks, and against everything else it prob wouldnt or shouldnt matter even if you manage to get value out of hemet.
So you play R.C. Rampage on 4 and cross fingers. There's just no other cheap beast around with rush so you can at very least get something out of this. Ironically, hunter has often gotten tokens with rush in expansions without any further support, and here's an expansion where those rushing beast would have been useful and they're just not here.
Mystery Egg - Unironically the best hunter card this expansion. Get a copy of a beast and make it cost 5 less. That's about as good as it gets. And you get to do it again.
R.C. Rampage - Seriously. Why dont the tokens have rush. Just summon 4 beast with rush with this thing, it wouldnt be anywhere near broken, and it'll make hemet a ton better. As it stands, it just a shit card that you pray a hail mary for.
Patchwork Pals - What the hell is this card. Animal companions for 2 mana is good. But really, this is hearthstone 2024 where even hunter are expected to have tons of reload. Where does this even get to? At best this is just 4 mana to deal a quick 4 damage to face.
Toyrannosaurus - Brief mention that I like the signature art. As a card though, absolute trash in competitive.
So once again we're doing this, mage gets yet another two casino cards that will unironically be viable to make everyone's life a tiny bit more miserable.
The Galactic Projection Orb - This card is basically Magister Dawngrasp. It'll do some token chip damage, raise a few minions for you and may completely shift the board in your favor. Not much else to comment on aside from the fact that it'll likely see play in most mage decks. I hope to dear god that team5 have made this card undiscoverable, because it'll not be fun to see this card more than once per game.
Yogg in the Box - Its yogg, it'll see play. It might also be good enough in competitive, or perhaps more likely it might dominate this specific expansion due to the smaller spell pool. Imagine this card casting the galactic orb which then proceed to cast another yogg box. Im sure this interaction is not possible, right team5?
Watercolor Artist - Would actually have been OP if it werent for the fact that its very specifically frost spells and there isnt really any OP frost spells right now.
Sleet Skater - It looks good, but in reality its likely not better than Arcane Artificer in games where gaining armor matters. If youre going up against an aggro deck this card wouldnt gain you significant armor, and against midrange-value decks it might gain you a good deal of armor but likely it wouldnt matter. Youd much rather just slam a 1/3 that must be killed on the early turns rather than rely on a 5 mana card that stalls one minion.
But admitably, if the meta shifts to big minions then this card is quite insane, being able to essentially stall two turns + gain tons of armor.
Oh yes, priest getting some seemingly toxic cards, let's see what we can make out;
Raza the Resealed - This card is absolutely trash...if it weren't for the fact that reno's arcane bullets exists. Fact of the matter is, being able to refresh hp is just not very useful unless you can cheapen it. And having no real method of doing so other than Papercraft Angel means that for the most part it'll never realistically matter.
Unfortunately, all that changes once you reno up. The moment the random hp turns to arcane bullets you practically just win the game. Because with papercraft angel you can legit just play your entire deck, with only the unreliable rope timer being the main issue. If I have to be honest, it'll prob end up with reno getting nerfed because no one wants to lose to an rng fest that leaves you helpless as your opponent plays their entire deck.
Timewinder Zarimi - So we're giving bronze dragons to priest as well now? Is there a reason why this isnt at least an infinite dragonflight? Oh well. Is this broken? Well yes. Gaining one extra turn with no questions asked is absolutely insane, with a paltry condition. So what's on the cards? 0 mana giants for lethal? No, it'll be in a reno deck that'll likely just kill you as you watch your life slowly drain away for two consecutive turns while your opponent emotes with every card played.
Fly Off the Shelves - Ive no idea why team5 decided that this should be a one sided board clear. So we can play midrange dragon priest? Well, at least it is a board clear, because priest really needs a few more post rotation.
Scale Replica - Decent card draw option. Only comment I have is to point out that this is the level where we're at right now. Drawing two cards for two mana is apparently the standard these days. Used to be incredibly OP just over two years ago.
Careless Crafter - Love the card because of overheal support. Unfortunately it'll only predominately do two things in competitive. Draw you cards via Crimson Clergy or fuel for more hp to your face.
Purifying Power - One of the weirdest cards to be released for priest. Its so difficult to imagine this seeing play and yet the effect is so unique it makes me wonder if team5 specifically design this card to be not only playable but influential, whether its now or the coming expansions.
Its my own opinion that reno raza priest is going to be a hot thing once expansion starts, but I simply dont think it'll be as good as it seems. Maybe the odd game everything clicks and its the best deck in the world, but more likely priest simply dies way before they can pull out anything useful. There is a reason why reno decks right now isnt any good as I write this.
Oh boy pirates for rogue again, whatever could go wrong. Let's hope they dont become redundant for the next two years.
Shoplifter Goldbeard - If you take off the mask you'd quickly realize what this really is. Its Mr. Smite, except shittier. Designed entirely to take advantage of the meager amount of useful pirates available in this expansion. So what can we do with this card? About the best you can hope for is sandbox scoundrel mini into Bargain Bin Buccaneer, or Watercannon after The Crystal Cove. Basically what Im trying to say is that this card is shit, only really playable assuming rogue has plenty of handbuffs, or otherwise somehow pirate rogue is so dominant that you'll slot this in because why not?
Sonya Waterdancer - Its gonna be broken at some point in the next two years. Essentially this card allows rogue to double the effects of all their 1 mana cards. Fortunately draka is no longer in standard.
Watercannon - The only thing I like about this card is that it has 3 durability and deals 9 damage over three turns.
The Crystal Cove - Its patently obvious that the main usage of this card is to hit two things; Watercannon's token or Bargain Bin Buccaneer. However, will it be competitive, given that it has very nearly zero usage outside of those two cards? Well, this one takes playtesting, because when it does work it will seem broken as hell but when it doesnt its a brick in hand.
Sandbox Scoundrel - Doesnt take a genius to see that this card is broken as hell. Not the card itself, the mini version. The scabbs comparison is not entirely fair, because scabbs costs 4 mana, whereas the mini version is a straight up unnerfed Innervate. Guess its good thing that draka and Sinstone Graveyard is rotating.
Have to say, if rogue is playable at all, chances are good it wont be a pure pirate deck, because none of these presents a viable wincon, nor are they making me interested.
CCG has been done dirty in my opinion because it would have been a whole lot better as a battlecry. It'll go into a reno deck because why not. There's simply not that many cards in the next expansion due to rotation so CCG would be an easy pick if nothing else because of the lack of competition.
Well, the leaked weapon was a fake, and instead we got Ci'Cigi. Here's my take on the dhunter cards;
Magtheridon, Unreleased - Fine example of a card that's better left dormant than actually awake. Its not gonna be in every dhunter deck ever, because spending 8 mana to deal 3 damage to board is the kind of card that'll get you destroyed in games. Instead, you'll likely be playing it in decks that's very specifically trying to cheapen it, and then likely you'll want to keep it dormant for as long as possible. Umpire's Grasp very conveniently allows you to tutor and discount the cost.
Ci'Cigi - I'll be honest, the card is flavourful but its also shite. Let's see what the many issues are; no vanilla stats, deathrattle, no taunt, and worse still the cards it grants you are OP...4 years ago. And to add the cherry on top, the cards are going towards your right, which means getting the cards outcasted are already a challenge in of itself.
One of the cards Im firmly expecting team5 to buff at a later stage. As for now, its only hope is that tempo dhunter is back in the next meta because nothing else will make this card playable.
Lesser Opal Spellstone - I'll prob never really draw you more than 2 cards in most games. The conditions are simply too difficult to accomplish quickly. You'll need very specifically windfury or Warglaives of Azzinoth to realistically make it work. Still, drawing 2 cards for 2 is within acceptable value for draw cards.
Ball Hog - Probably going to be one of the most annoying cards to deal with. It practically heals you for 9 and removes two minions most of the time. Against an aggro deck, this card sets them back so far north they might as well concede.
Window Shopper - Hitting magtheridon with this card and its mini version is just filthy. At least next expansion where the demon pool is limited, we can expect this card to see play, and probably going to be more tilting than it should actually be.
Yes I have and its really toxic as hell. But with the power level of hearthstone nowadays, unless its very specifically fitting to a combo its highly unlikely to cause trouble. We've come to a point where even a big minion for free on turn 5 with charge cannot realistically be enough to win the game.
Skull was only really toxic because it enable cube shenanigans. Without cube it'll just be a good card.
That is to say, if the leaks are real. May well be faked.
Quick reviews;
Dust bunny - Probably too expensive. The only real thing you want here is coin and you can easily get it from greedy partner, so whats this suppose to do other than as bait?
Flikering Lightbot - Too few holy spells to make this realistically good. Only if makiroll is still in standard. A highlander card at best
Twisted pack - Best 'pack' card so far. But rogue already have tons of ways to generate them and every last one of them are more consistent than this card
Murloc growfin - Respectable card because the token has rush and two 1/1s on one is good
Rocket Hopper - Oh my, 5 mana 10/10. Unplayable. Next.
Wave of Nostalgia - 99% of the time bloodlust would be better. Here's the bigger problem, this card has a chance of screwing you over since it also affects the opponent's board.
Holy glowsticks - Would only be respectable if its possible to cram loads of cheap holy cards into an aggro paladin, and Im not seeing how thats possible.
Dubious purchase - Dangerous in combo rogue. Unfortunately for this card, the current meta is a rogue that piles so much shit in hand that a card like this is an active detriment
Whack-a-gnoll - Had this card been a holy spell it'll be the catalyst to seeing the other holy synergy cards work. Unfortunately it isnt, so this card is just acceptable but I cant see where it fits in paladin decks. Pally weapons tend to be expensive, and since you can tutor weapons, wouldnt it be better just to do that?
So murloc growfin wins this round because the other cards arent up to scratch in my opinion.
The Replicator-inator - A sort of card that I'll wait patiently for pros to completely abuse. However, I will say that it doesnt really impress me at first glance. Being able to copy a minion just like that is impressive, but the cost of this minion + the idea that you'll need to keep it in hand until the exact cards comes into your hand makes me a tad unoptimistic.
Building-block golem - Is it just me, or is this card looking broken? Probably not as OP as I would think but it does put plenty of stats on board plus a rush minion at the cost of 5. Either heartstone's power level has scaled to such heights that even cards like these are unplayable, or it really does look as powerful as I think it is.
Gibbering Reject - Now look here team5. Its not like youve never printed cards that put two 3/3s on board at 3, so why the hell is this card costing 4? As though as such a thing has any chance of surviving anyway, and you still need to have a weapon in hand to trigger it. This card is effectively worthless in competitive because look at it.
Part Scrapper - Its that card that makes you want to uninstall the game when it happens to you. Its purposefully made to be powerful because otherwise no one will bother to play it since reno warrior is just way better in any case. But that doesnt excuse the fact that a card like this is just toxic.
New cards, let's have a look;
Product 9 - Probably wouldnt see much play in the current meta because hunters all about playing by tempo, and Im not seeing any possibility of secret hunter being good. Even if we assume this card is playable, its nearly never played on curve and relies very heavily on other cards being played (and triggered) first.
Darkmoon magician - Its yet another casino card that practically is unplayable in competitive but hell it'll make players try. At least there's little chance of it killing itself owing to the elusive tag but really, if such a card was viable then surely tentacle mage would have already been a thing.
Wilderness pack - No clue as to why the cards granted cant just stay in your hand because at its current iteration its practically useless. Once a while it grants you exactly what you need but 90% of the time you'd just play what is playable, end turn, and get your arse whipped. Would have been playable if the cards actually stick to your hand but as it stands its just a highlander card thats played for its own sake
And finally...pro gamer. The lastest of the miniset epics. Does this one suck as per tradition?
Well, I'll say its not shit but its not the 2nd coming of Christ neither. What it is, is simply an a draw option for a class/achetype that would otherwise not have any, like zarimi priest. Plus, there's always the chance of trapping your opponent into a lose-lose situation so there's that.
Probably playable, which is the most charitable thing you can say for miniset epics I guess. Not gonna be surprised if it neverplayed like all its predecessors.
Alright, mini set coming. At least we only need to deal with the current meta for likely another week or so. Here's my thoughts;
Gigantify - Probably not anywhere near as good as miniaturize, which if we have to be honest, isnt exactly making waves itself. So main problem to this keyword: its high cost makes it only really viable if it has taunt/rush, and its only really playable in midrange decks or otherwise decks that can afford to discount the costs.
Puppetmaster Dorian - Looks broken, especially with cards that tutor like caricature artist etc. But looking at the meta these days, I cant see a world where you wait until turn 8 with two cards in hand trying to scam a combo out, and not die in the process. That being said, mini set legendaries always tend to warp the meta around so Im fairly sure this card would be good, just not sure if it would stay good since its equally true most miniset legendaries tend to also get nerfed in their lifetime.
Puppet theater - The sort of card that would make you tear your hair off your scalp because it more or less means any strategy that involves a wincon attached to a minion will immediately be invalidated, unless the win comes immediately the turn after its played. The only mitigating circumstance I can see is the fact that this card virtually does nothing otherwise, so in most matches its fairly worthless.
Other cards perhaps not really that interesting. Snuggle bear looks okay, overgrown beanstalk is a build around card that may help drum druid but is perhaps too slow, and toyrantus is the sort of card that'll never see play.
I fully symphatize with your decision to let go of hearthstone because if I have to be perfectly honest the game has gone stale for quite some time now, and it always seem to me like its hanging on the edges of being let go. All that was needed was a slight nudge, and blizzard duly provided it when they raised the quest requirements for weeklies.
For my own part, Im staying for now. I play enough hearthstone that the increases in quest requirements dont really affect me, and if Im feeling particularly unmotivated to play hearthstone I'll play a few busted decks in wild (being in bronze rank, getting wins there is very nearly automatic) just to get the quests done quickly.
Just a small comment, I find it a bit surprising is how much stick that 'play 32 miniature cards' is getting when in reality playing 75 battlecry cards and 750 mana is far more time consuming than even the 'win 10 games' could ever muster.
But I do worry for hearthstone's future. Its not likely to get any better; the game is not really evolving so much as it is just repeating itself but at a higher power level. The game is getting progressively more expensive to have fun in, and hearthstone being what it is, its fairly time consuming even for aggro players.
In my opinion, hearthstone may need a reset button. Either retiring cards, scaling back the power level substantially, or simply just making hearthstone 2. All of those require great amounts of planning and manpower, and Im not optimitic that it'll ever happen. More likely hearthstone succumbs to a slow death, Im not exactly sure whether I'll be happy to be released or sad that one of my hobbies just go bust.
My take on the changes;
Shroomscavate and deputization aura effectively got nuked, because I cant see them see any play for their effects anymore. Its is really kind of funny, how shroomscavate doesnt really have any shaman connections anymore and is now just a vanilla exacavate card. Probably one of the weakest excavate card now.
Other nerfs are fine. Odyn needed a nerf because if it wasnt it'll probably continue to dominate warrior decks until it rotates. Im not exactly sure how anything can rock it off warrior's boat, except printing out more and more disgustingly powerful cards because at its base Odyn is just the perfect warrior card.
Aftershocks though, a bit of a hard nerf just because it does well with drawing. Effectively this card is just trash now, because there's simply much better clear tools than this.
Certain things shouldve been addressed, like ticking module which seems almost an auto pick for nearly any and all zilliax. But Im less happy about the nerfs for paladin. All they needed to do is just remove windfury from shroomscavate. Even the plushy nerf seems like a nerf candidate simply because it has been performing well but not in consideration for what it offers the class.
Other nerfs;
- Awakening tremors might see the tokens be 3/1s. Any mana nerf here will immediately nuke the card
- Thrall's gift will almost certainly remove lightning bolt from the list of selections. Its quite funny actually how easily shaman just OTK people with some of the cheapest deck ever because of the easy availability of damage spells.
- Odyn will be nerfed to 9. I cant see how team5 can balance it other than increasing its mana cost.
- Aftershocks will likely cost 3 after discounts.
Prob the same as double brann on board. Literally just trigger twice.
Its not and probably never have been curated lets be honest. The achievements from the very beginning is easily 95% grind, some of them being so egregious that its indefensible. The one that require us to use the locations 150 times is one of the worst I have in memory.
Far as Im concerned, this is 100% a good move from team5.
Ive played a variation of BBU, even BBF, before which focuses on handbuff. Its okay, but the reason why it could never be anything more than a niche tier 3 deck is because its either too slow, or you run out of stuff too quickly. Not to mention that against control decks its a nightmare, which is why I gave up trying to make the deck work.
Youre right about zombietank being a good add there, because the taunt makes up a bit for the slowness, but Im still not convinced it'll be a deck. Maybe rotation would make it more viable. We'll see.
DK has a hero card, so that's the top in terms of power level for this class. Unfortunately, not so much for the other cards.
Dr. Stitchensew - How this works is presumably that the 5 cost minion will spawn the 3 cost etc. So essentially this is one extremely sticky minion that will always guarantee something on board at the end of next turn. Ive no real problem with this card other than redundancy, because most DK decks prob dont need stuff like this outside of maybe unholy DK. Just as a comparison point, when Obsidian Revenant was revealed I was pretty hyped because I thought that card was the apex of what can be done with extremely sticky minions, and that card had taunt with a better statline. That card saw zero play.
The one good thing about this card. Its undead and therefore works well with Sinister Soulcage, making it perhaps impossible to ignore.
Rainbow Seamstress - If ever there's a DK card thats blatantly a rainbow rune card without being tagged as such. Its worthless outside of rainbow, the bonus effect is simply not gonna cut it. You can put it in plague DK like some sort of psuedo Restless Mummy, and that's about it. Quite excellent in rainbow DK though Im not sure what you'll remove from that deck to fit this in.
Silk Stitching - Poor card in so many respect that its baffling. Seems like what you get if youre desperate for a discover spell card. Need a target to work, need the target to die before working, and then the spell it cast is targeted at random. How much further downhill can this card go?
Threads of Despair - The best board clear DK might ever receive. A shame that it'll also destroy your side of the board, but this is a 1 mana card that wipes the board most of the time. There's simply no reason this card wouldnt see play in competitive at some point.
Rambunctious Stuffy - The only thing keeping this little pup from ruling the world is the lack of frost spells.
Shambling Zombietank - One of the weirdest cards Ive ever seen printed. Its almost like its entirely here just to spend corpses and yet because it has taunt and the effect is to give you another taunt, you simply cannot deny that in the late game it'll buff up your Climactic Necrotic Explosion and present two taunts to protect your face.
Can just play it in the early game for a 3/2 on board. Though admitably it bricks in the midgame since you'll much rather be saving corpses for Corpse Bride or Malignant Horror
The main bit about reno is arcane shots, which practically enables them to play way more cards than they perhaps should be able to. Doesnt even need to be a reno deck, because Ive seen priest draw their entire deck fairly convincingly. It worked with warrior, it would in my opinion work with priest as well.
With hedanis, you'd need quite a lot of stuff to happen for the combo to work consistently, whereas for reno its really just playing one card. Even if youre not on arcane shots, getting a few hp out is still good value for a control deck.
The current overheal priest is good enough in my opinion, doesnt need raza or Papercraft Angel for it to work properly.
Right, hunter cards. My general opinion is that hunter is not going to have a very fun expansion coming up next. Cute cards though :)
Hemet, Foam Marksman - Well well. This is the sort of card thats supposed to be broken as fuck. Basically a card that gives you good reload, at discounted prices, hemet himself is a mere 5 mana. So what's the issue here? Let's start with the most obvious: the condition is nigh impossible to do against control decks, and against everything else it prob wouldnt or shouldnt matter even if you manage to get value out of hemet.
So you play R.C. Rampage on 4 and cross fingers. There's just no other cheap beast around with rush so you can at very least get something out of this. Ironically, hunter has often gotten tokens with rush in expansions without any further support, and here's an expansion where those rushing beast would have been useful and they're just not here.
Mystery Egg - Unironically the best hunter card this expansion. Get a copy of a beast and make it cost 5 less. That's about as good as it gets. And you get to do it again.
R.C. Rampage - Seriously. Why dont the tokens have rush. Just summon 4 beast with rush with this thing, it wouldnt be anywhere near broken, and it'll make hemet a ton better. As it stands, it just a shit card that you pray a hail mary for.
Patchwork Pals - What the hell is this card. Animal companions for 2 mana is good. But really, this is hearthstone 2024 where even hunter are expected to have tons of reload. Where does this even get to? At best this is just 4 mana to deal a quick 4 damage to face.
Toyrannosaurus - Brief mention that I like the signature art. As a card though, absolute trash in competitive.
Remote Control - Plenty of cards like these have worked. Carving Chisel, Umberwing etc. No reason for this not to work as well.
So, not looking too good for hunter. Think hunter may need a little boost, because I cant see the class being very popular outside of gold ranks.
Shocked and saddened. One of the few Japanese artist whos style is truly unique, almost a perfect cross between anime and western designs.
Hopefully his legacy is respected and finally allow some closure to his work.
So once again we're doing this, mage gets yet another two casino cards that will unironically be viable to make everyone's life a tiny bit more miserable.
The Galactic Projection Orb - This card is basically Magister Dawngrasp. It'll do some token chip damage, raise a few minions for you and may completely shift the board in your favor. Not much else to comment on aside from the fact that it'll likely see play in most mage decks. I hope to dear god that team5 have made this card undiscoverable, because it'll not be fun to see this card more than once per game.
Yogg in the Box - Its yogg, it'll see play. It might also be good enough in competitive, or perhaps more likely it might dominate this specific expansion due to the smaller spell pool. Imagine this card casting the galactic orb which then proceed to cast another yogg box. Im sure this interaction is not possible, right team5?
Watercolor Artist - Would actually have been OP if it werent for the fact that its very specifically frost spells and there isnt really any OP frost spells right now.
Manufacturing Error - Created entirely for spell mage, and is basically Skull of Gul'dan without the outcast requirement.
Sleet Skater - It looks good, but in reality its likely not better than Arcane Artificer in games where gaining armor matters. If youre going up against an aggro deck this card wouldnt gain you significant armor, and against midrange-value decks it might gain you a good deal of armor but likely it wouldnt matter. Youd much rather just slam a 1/3 that must be killed on the early turns rather than rely on a 5 mana card that stalls one minion.
But admitably, if the meta shifts to big minions then this card is quite insane, being able to essentially stall two turns + gain tons of armor.
Oh yes, priest getting some seemingly toxic cards, let's see what we can make out;
Raza the Resealed - This card is absolutely trash...if it weren't for the fact that reno's arcane bullets exists. Fact of the matter is, being able to refresh hp is just not very useful unless you can cheapen it. And having no real method of doing so other than Papercraft Angel means that for the most part it'll never realistically matter.
Unfortunately, all that changes once you reno up. The moment the random hp turns to arcane bullets you practically just win the game. Because with papercraft angel you can legit just play your entire deck, with only the unreliable rope timer being the main issue. If I have to be honest, it'll prob end up with reno getting nerfed because no one wants to lose to an rng fest that leaves you helpless as your opponent plays their entire deck.
Timewinder Zarimi - So we're giving bronze dragons to priest as well now? Is there a reason why this isnt at least an infinite dragonflight? Oh well. Is this broken? Well yes. Gaining one extra turn with no questions asked is absolutely insane, with a paltry condition. So what's on the cards? 0 mana giants for lethal? No, it'll be in a reno deck that'll likely just kill you as you watch your life slowly drain away for two consecutive turns while your opponent emotes with every card played.
Fly Off the Shelves - Ive no idea why team5 decided that this should be a one sided board clear. So we can play midrange dragon priest? Well, at least it is a board clear, because priest really needs a few more post rotation.
Scale Replica - Decent card draw option. Only comment I have is to point out that this is the level where we're at right now. Drawing two cards for two mana is apparently the standard these days. Used to be incredibly OP just over two years ago.
Careless Crafter - Love the card because of overheal support. Unfortunately it'll only predominately do two things in competitive. Draw you cards via Crimson Clergy or fuel for more hp to your face.
Purifying Power - One of the weirdest cards to be released for priest. Its so difficult to imagine this seeing play and yet the effect is so unique it makes me wonder if team5 specifically design this card to be not only playable but influential, whether its now or the coming expansions.
Its my own opinion that reno raza priest is going to be a hot thing once expansion starts, but I simply dont think it'll be as good as it seems. Maybe the odd game everything clicks and its the best deck in the world, but more likely priest simply dies way before they can pull out anything useful. There is a reason why reno decks right now isnt any good as I write this.
Oh boy pirates for rogue again, whatever could go wrong. Let's hope they dont become redundant for the next two years.
Shoplifter Goldbeard - If you take off the mask you'd quickly realize what this really is. Its Mr. Smite, except shittier. Designed entirely to take advantage of the meager amount of useful pirates available in this expansion. So what can we do with this card? About the best you can hope for is sandbox scoundrel mini into Bargain Bin Buccaneer, or Watercannon after The Crystal Cove. Basically what Im trying to say is that this card is shit, only really playable assuming rogue has plenty of handbuffs, or otherwise somehow pirate rogue is so dominant that you'll slot this in because why not?
Sonya Waterdancer - Its gonna be broken at some point in the next two years. Essentially this card allows rogue to double the effects of all their 1 mana cards. Fortunately draka is no longer in standard.
Watercannon - The only thing I like about this card is that it has 3 durability and deals 9 damage over three turns.
The Crystal Cove - Its patently obvious that the main usage of this card is to hit two things; Watercannon's token or Bargain Bin Buccaneer. However, will it be competitive, given that it has very nearly zero usage outside of those two cards? Well, this one takes playtesting, because when it does work it will seem broken as hell but when it doesnt its a brick in hand.
Sandbox Scoundrel - Doesnt take a genius to see that this card is broken as hell. Not the card itself, the mini version. The scabbs comparison is not entirely fair, because scabbs costs 4 mana, whereas the mini version is a straight up unnerfed Innervate. Guess its good thing that draka and Sinstone Graveyard is rotating.
Have to say, if rogue is playable at all, chances are good it wont be a pure pirate deck, because none of these presents a viable wincon, nor are they making me interested.
CCG has been done dirty in my opinion because it would have been a whole lot better as a battlecry. It'll go into a reno deck because why not. There's simply not that many cards in the next expansion due to rotation so CCG would be an easy pick if nothing else because of the lack of competition.
Will it do loads though? Prob not.
Well, the leaked weapon was a fake, and instead we got Ci'Cigi. Here's my take on the dhunter cards;
Magtheridon, Unreleased - Fine example of a card that's better left dormant than actually awake. Its not gonna be in every dhunter deck ever, because spending 8 mana to deal 3 damage to board is the kind of card that'll get you destroyed in games. Instead, you'll likely be playing it in decks that's very specifically trying to cheapen it, and then likely you'll want to keep it dormant for as long as possible. Umpire's Grasp very conveniently allows you to tutor and discount the cost.
Ci'Cigi - I'll be honest, the card is flavourful but its also shite. Let's see what the many issues are; no vanilla stats, deathrattle, no taunt, and worse still the cards it grants you are OP...4 years ago. And to add the cherry on top, the cards are going towards your right, which means getting the cards outcasted are already a challenge in of itself.
One of the cards Im firmly expecting team5 to buff at a later stage. As for now, its only hope is that tempo dhunter is back in the next meta because nothing else will make this card playable.
Lesser Opal Spellstone - I'll prob never really draw you more than 2 cards in most games. The conditions are simply too difficult to accomplish quickly. You'll need very specifically windfury or Warglaives of Azzinoth to realistically make it work. Still, drawing 2 cards for 2 is within acceptable value for draw cards.
Ball Hog - Probably going to be one of the most annoying cards to deal with. It practically heals you for 9 and removes two minions most of the time. Against an aggro deck, this card sets them back so far north they might as well concede.
Window Shopper - Hitting magtheridon with this card and its mini version is just filthy. At least next expansion where the demon pool is limited, we can expect this card to see play, and probably going to be more tilting than it should actually be.
Yes I have and its really toxic as hell. But with the power level of hearthstone nowadays, unless its very specifically fitting to a combo its highly unlikely to cause trouble. We've come to a point where even a big minion for free on turn 5 with charge cannot realistically be enough to win the game.
Skull was only really toxic because it enable cube shenanigans. Without cube it'll just be a good card.
That is to say, if the leaks are real. May well be faked.