Why nobody plays shieldbreaker?

Submitted 4 years, 7 months ago by

for reference: Shieldbreaker most people's opinion about the card back in rastakan that the card is great, but aggro plays Prince Keleseth.

them is essentially old owl in the current meta most minions you want to silence are taunts, and warrior now runs the taunt package which means their taunts are buffed also every deck runs Zilliax.

do you think them is worth inclusion in zoo/aggro warrior/murloc pally?

  • DoubleSummon's Avatar
    Ancestral Recall 1585 2271 Posts Joined 03/25/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    for reference: Shieldbreaker most people's opinion about the card back in rastakan that the card is great, but aggro plays Prince Keleseth.

    them is essentially old owl in the current meta most minions you want to silence are taunts, and warrior now runs the taunt package which means their taunts are buffed also every deck runs Zilliax.

    do you think them is worth inclusion in zoo/aggro warrior/murloc pally?

    0
  • RavenSunHS's Avatar
    Refreshment Vendor 880 1487 Posts Joined 03/27/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    Well, as with all tech cards, they start appearing when the meta starts to get refined. 

    We're still just 1 week in the expansion. You might be right about including Shieldbreaker in Murloc Paladin and Zoolock in order to stand better chances against the most popular Control decks eg. CW.

    Although it might stay an unattempted move simply because it would make little to no difference, given the immense removal and comeback arsenals of established Control decks.

    1
  • ArngrimUndying's Avatar
    Draconically Dedicated 520 626 Posts Joined 06/11/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    I'm not sure I agree that most minions you want to silence are taunts. This might change as the new meta settles in, but during RoS and before I generally saved my silences for use against stacked magnetic mechs vs Paladin/Warrior/Hunter or strong Deathrattles/buffed up minions vs most other things (i.e. Edwin VanCleef). The caveat being, sure if 1 taunt was the only thing between me and lethal then silence away, but certainly was never the primary target.

    So for me the versatility to silence ANYTHING is more than worth the 1 additional mana for Ironbeak Owl (or even +2 mana for Spellbreaker that also leaves a body that might even survive a turn if i'm running a deck light on decent minions).

    1
  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    I'm curious as to how you linked Shieldbreaker's card tag correctly, and made an entire topic about the card, without realizing that Shieldbreaker is female.

    -6
  • AliRadicali's Avatar
    465 713 Posts Joined 06/06/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    It's a bad card. If you're going to include an understatted silence guy gal to answer key enemy minions you might as well have that be a minion that can silence anything, not just taunts.

    Even if shieldbreaker had a fair statline, that is to say, 2/3 or 3/2, the fact that it can only silence enemy taunts is a huge detriment to the card as a tech inclusion. You might run it as a "real" card in aggro lists though if it were a river croc with potential upside, but it isn't.

     

    I don't know if most players were hyped about this back when RR came out, but if they were, they were wrong. Shieldbreaker is no prenerf Ironbeak Owl, not even close.

    1
  • YourPrivateNightmare's Avatar
    Skeleton 2010 4741 Posts Joined 03/25/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    because why run a 2-mana silence that only hits some minions versus a 3-mana version that hits all.

    There is no taunt worth silencing on curve at 2-mana.

    Mana cost is really only relevant when it comes to tempo and with silence you usually don't use it for tempo but rather for a final push or to eliminate an enemy threat, both cases are usually not reliant on a specific mana cost unless you want to combo them with something particularly expensive

    I tried having fun once.

    It was awful.

    1
  • DoubleSummon's Avatar
    Ancestral Recall 1585 2271 Posts Joined 03/25/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago
    Quote From YourPrivateNightmare

    because why run a 2-mana silence that only hits some minions versus a 3-mana version that hits all.

    There is no taunt worth silencing on curve at 2-mana.

    Mana cost is really only relevant when it comes to tempo and with silence you usually don't use it for tempo but rather for a final push or to eliminate an enemy threat, both cases are usually not reliant on a specific mana cost unless you want to combo them with something particularly expensive

    Ironbeak Owl was played in every single aggro deck to silence taunts at 2 mana I think owl would still be played as it was before why you guys now claim the mana cost of a silence card is irrelevant in an aggro deck? It doesn't work against edwin, or magnetic none taunt minions, but rogue is not a hard matchup for aggro decks.

    a 2/1 for 2 is as understatted as a 4/3 for 4 it's 1 mana lower stat line you pay 1 for silence and 1 for the body.

    About the last line I play mostly decks that rely on tempo the mana cost is relevant, with owl you can't Leeroy Jenkins + Inner Rage + Bloodsworn Mercenary as well as a similar combo with Grommash Hellscream the mana cost is relevant in said deck, and taunt is a huge speed bump or straight loss if played late game and you are holding those pieces. as well as the option to do other such finisher earlier.

     

    0
  • Sherman1986's Avatar
    Derpcorn 205 183 Posts Joined 03/11/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago
    Quote From Demonxz95

    I'm curious as to how you linked Shieldbreaker's card tag correctly, and made an entire topic about the card, without realizing that Shieldbreaker is female.

    Wait... What??? C'mon Demonxz95, you can't be serious... :/

    -5
  • Yusuke's Avatar
    295 187 Posts Joined 06/02/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    As one above me mentioned Owl was played, because it can silence everyone, not only taunt. Even Aggro decks used silence back in the day to silence value minions like Brann or others to stop the value for the enemy. Shieldbreaker can't do this, so it's weaker than owl.

    Additionally that most of the time, when silence is played you don't lack mana crystals, so it's doesnt matter, if your silence minion is 2 or 3 mana.

    Tl'dr: Owl > Shieldbreaker.

    0
  • DoubleSummon's Avatar
    Ancestral Recall 1585 2271 Posts Joined 03/25/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago
    Quote From Demonxz95

    I'm curious as to how you linked Shieldbreaker's card tag correctly, and made an entire topic about the card, without realizing that Shieldbreaker is female.

    Fixed for you.

    0
  • YourPrivateNightmare's Avatar
    Skeleton 2010 4741 Posts Joined 03/25/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago
    Quote From DoubleSummon
    Quote From YourPrivateNightmare

    because why run a 2-mana silence that only hits some minions versus a 3-mana version that hits all.

    There is no taunt worth silencing on curve at 2-mana.

    Mana cost is really only relevant when it comes to tempo and with silence you usually don't use it for tempo but rather for a final push or to eliminate an enemy threat, both cases are usually not reliant on a specific mana cost unless you want to combo them with something particularly expensive

    Ironbeak Owl was played in every single aggro deck to silence taunts at 2 mana I think owl would still be played as it was before why you guys now claim the mana cost of a silence card is irrelevant in an aggro deck? It doesn't work against edwin, or magnetic none taunt minions, but rogue is not a hard matchup for aggro decks.

    a 2/1 for 2 is as understatted as a 4/3 for 4 it's 1 mana lower stat line you pay 1 for silence and 1 for the body.

    About the last line I play mostly decks that rely on tempo the mana cost is relevant, with owl you can't Leeroy Jenkins + Inner Rage + Bloodsworn Mercenary as well as a similar combo with Grommash Hellscream the mana cost is relevant in said deck, and taunt is a huge speed bump or straight loss if played late game and you are holding those pieces. as well as the option to do other such finisher earlier.

     

    once again, flexibility is the key here. There's no reason running a card that is a dead draw against certain decks for 1-mana less over just running flexible silence.

    Also, yes, the mana cost is in fact irrelevant outside of a few niche cases (pretty much just the one you mentioned at the moment and Aggro Warrior doesn't even run Silence right now) and I can prove this by pointing to the fact that after Owl was nerfed, Spellbreaker became the silencer of choice because it wasn't important to have the cheapest silence but rather to have the most overall efficient...and a 4-mana 4/3 is better than a 3-mana 2/1.

    If you're so adamant about Shieldbreaker being better then just run her in your aggro decks and then come back when you've lost enough games to minions you wanted to silence but couldn't and where the mana cost made no difference whatsoever.

    I tried having fun once.

    It was awful.

    0
  • OldManSanns's Avatar
    Azir 1040 924 Posts Joined 08/05/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago
    Quote From DoubleSummon

    do you think them is worth inclusion in zoo/aggro warrior/murloc pally?

    I think you're playing in a very different meta than I am. 

    0
  • Hydrafrog's Avatar
    Gul'dan 1840 3268 Posts Joined 05/28/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    In  the Standard Meta, I auto-include that in my decks that are running aggro simply because taunts are what get in the way, and anything other than that, such as lifelink, I'm out damaging what they can do... so I like the use of that card.  

    0
  • duppie's Avatar
    HearthStationeer 320 240 Posts Joined 04/02/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    it's a bad card. owl is just better.  one extra mana is worth the flexibility even in aggro decks.  freeze is super popular so not being able to silence your own minions out of a freeze is a flaw.  you also can't silence buffed minions in aggro mirrors or value minions against control.  There are better ways to kill zilliax than this thing.  yeah, the card is good in the dream scenario where you have exact lethal with this because it's 2 mana, but there are normal games that will happen all the time where this is a dead card or a 2 mana 2/1 where you lose tempo and lower your chance of winning that game.   If it was a good card, people would play it.  

     

    If you want cheaper than owl, you're better off with earth shock or the poison murloc..  you aren't really interested in paying an extra mana for a 0 synergy 2/1.

     

    Quote From OldManSanns
    Quote From DoubleSummon

    do you think them is worth inclusion in zoo/aggro warrior/murloc pally?

    I think you're playing in a very different meta than I am. 

    Aggro warrior is a very real deck.  not tier 1 or super popular but it's legit.  someone won a masters qualifier with it the other day.  

    1
  • DoubleSummon's Avatar
    Ancestral Recall 1585 2271 Posts Joined 03/25/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago
    Quote From duppie

    it's a bad card. owl is just better.  one extra mana is worth the flexibility even in aggro decks.  freeze is super popular so not being able to silence your own minions out of a freeze is a flaw.  you also can't silence buffed minions in aggro mirrors or value minions against control.  There are better ways to kill zilliax than this thing.  yeah, the card is good in the dream scenario where you have exact lethal with this because it's 2 mana, but there are normal games that will happen all the time where this is a dead card or a 2 mana 2/1 where you lose tempo and lower your chance of winning that game.   If it was a good card, people would play it.  

     

    If you want cheaper than owl, you're better off with earth shock or the poison murloc..  you aren't really interested in paying an extra mana for a 0 synergy 2/1.

     

    Quote From OldManSanns
    Quote From DoubleSummon

    do you think them is worth inclusion in zoo/aggro warrior/murloc pally?

    I think you're playing in a very different meta than I am. 

    Aggro warrior is a very real deck.  not tier 1 or super popular but it's legit.  someone won a masters qualifier with it the other day.  

    The freeze silence is very convincing tbh being able to unfreeze a minion or silence a doomsayer could be a game winner, will try the shieldbreaker for a bit more if them doesn't seem to be the right tech then I will consider a spellbreaker instead I know the current list doesn't run silence but the deck isn't in it's final form and taunt is my main obstacle will see anyway btw...

    Aggro warrior is engrage/rush variant of warrior it's a tier 2 deck according to HS replay started playing that deck and it's the most fun variant of warrior as much as I am concerned.

    0
  • BORIS's Avatar
    115 29 Posts Joined 07/24/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    the cards is actualy staple in some decks in wild like pirate warrior and zoolock duo to existence of Obsidian Statue and Voidlord

    because this 2 giant taunts can cheated out as soon as turn 4 

    so u need a cheap silence on early turns

    in standard big taunt minions are pretty uncommon and cannot get cheated out consistently so Spellbreaker do the job much better

     

    0
  • Shivach's Avatar
    220 47 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    I am running a single copy of Shieldbreaker in a Token Druid and Im very pleased with the results, mainly because it's cheap and can be played along with buffs or board clears. 

    Another good reason to be running one of these is .... I don't think many people expect to see them.  

    1
  • Thez's Avatar
    195 73 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    Mainly the card is too specific. Many other effects than Taunt are also worth a Silence. Sure, [Hearthstone Card (Shield Breaker) Not Found] is great against Tirion and if you want to go face with something, but that's about it. For just 1 more mana you have Ironbeak Owl with the same stats but no Taunt restriction. And for 4 mana there's Spellbreaker which has a more decent 4/3 body for the added mana cost. It's too niche.

    1
  • DoubleSummon's Avatar
    Ancestral Recall 1585 2271 Posts Joined 03/25/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    Ok guys I tested it out, and with combo priest going around I decided that silence is just needed.. that being said why most lists don't contain silence? it's probably the reason why priest is steamrolling everyone.

    1
  • chaosprism's Avatar
    Face Collector 340 83 Posts Joined 03/28/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    yeah I see so many people saying it's a bad card, it's not just a bit more specific, might have been better as a 2/2 but it's fine as it is.

    0
  • Trollbert's Avatar
    Excited Elf 510 338 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    Good tech for 1-5 ranks, not prevalent enough for 5-20 in my experience 

    0
  • W0lfr1c's Avatar
    210 128 Posts Joined 05/31/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    It lost to owl quite clearly .... And if i want to run one silence for later game use i use spellbreaker.

    0
  • Leave a Comment

    You must be signed in to leave a comment. Sign in here.

    ODYN
    0 Users Here