While all of the monetary player gouging is certainly concerning, it's really the dire state of the actual card game that is making me consider quitting, as someone who has been playing since the last wave of closed beta. Hearthstone actually did a pretty good job for a number of years of avoiding too much power creep. Naturally, cards improved over what they were at launch, but the core of the game remained intact. The board state is almost irrelevant in recent metas. Game ending cards are now at 6-mana, because having them at 8 or 9 would likely see many not included in decks for being too slow. Cards regularly generate three other cards, so value isn't a thing you have to consider, you almost never run out of resources before the game is decided.
I'd like to see a return to form for the game, but it seems clear to me that while Blizzard are asking for more time/money, less money is being invested into the game itself. I sadly think its best days are behind it.
The flavor for Fancy Packaging is so good - the divine shield being a representation of the box you keep a figure in, to keep the figure/minion untouched.
Day 111 of reveals, eh? This is gonna be a big set.
I see Nostalgic Clown fitting into a lot of non-aggro decks with the lower power level following rotation. It's not flashy, but a solid midrange filler card.
Mmm. You would think the point is that you're supposed to cheat it out someway, but then you don't get the mini version in your hand. Perhaps there's some synergy with a card yet revealed that lowers the highest cost card in your hand or something.
We want to experiment with smaller buffs across several cards that are rotating out of Standard soon—especially in classes that are currently weaker—to see if we can give them one last hurrah. Our hope is that players will try out and enjoy some of these strategies during these last few weeks before they go. This is an experiment, so we’ll be tracking player sentiment and play data to see if this works out.
Why would I make something so innocuous up? It's possible I'm misremembering, certainly. Looking at old threads when the announcement happened, Odd Shaman was the biggest Shaman archetype, so it was definitely a nerf in that specific deck. Maybe that's what I'm remembering.
That was usually the totem you most wanted to roll as Shaman way back, to hit higher breakpoints with Lightning Bolt or Lightning Storm. There was a reason most people referred to the replacement with Strength Totem as a nerf.
It's a shame we no longer get Solo Adventures of any kind. I gather that this is supposed to be the first meeting of the League of Explorers, but you don't feel it without some kind of story-based content.
My prediction for the 10th anniversary set is that we're going to get the default heroes as game-changing Legendaries - Jaina, Thrall etc. In earlier years, it was considered off-limits for Heroes to also be minions; Illidan Stormrage was even changed to Xavius when Demon Hunter was announced. But now we have so many alternate Heroes, many of which are represented as minions.
Of the elemental lords, Ragnaros is the only one treated as a marketing draw by Hearthstone.
Much as with Classic, I enjoyed my time with Twist for about a month. It was fun to play with old cards, and I didn't even mind too much that there were only about four meta decks - knowing your opponent's likely cards and really eking out advantages where you can in the match-ups was fun.
But playing it long-term? For me, it's always going to come back to the fact that Standard is simply the format that gets the most attention. Why would I choose to play Wild, Classic or Twist as my main focus when Standard is clearly the priority?
It is part of Mage's class identity though, and the HS team have repeatedly said that Casino Mage-style decks tend to be some of the most popular to play, regardless of the win rate being good or bad. So it's unsurprising that it would continue to be printed.
While the wording is weird, I think the deathrattle seems correct - if you don't play the card(s) in time, they get taken from your hand and put into your opponent's. So unless you mana cheat this guy somehow, you can't kill a big guy and play it on the same turn, and you risk giving your opponent the card back if they can kill Kologarn.
Life from Death - come on, Nourish draws 3 cards and costs 5 mana. Now wait one turn and play it for 1 mana, or not because you can increase your mana crystals with something and you will still have mana to play this. Candidate to nerf, infuse (8) or (10) or (20)?
It's Infuse, not Manathirst. Still, with Scale of Onyxia, it's not far off.
I wonder why Rogue is so prevalent? According to HSReplay, Thief Rogue is the most played deck in the meta, but it doesn't have the highest winrate, neither in Diamond (where Shockspitter Hunter, Nathria Imp Warlock and Pure Paladin are all ahead) or in Top Legend (where Shockspitter and Evolve Shaman are ahead).
Some serious buffs to Priest might be better than nerfing Rogue. It has a massively favorable winrate against Rogue - with its efficient clears and healing to stay out of range - but sucks against most everything else, so is basically a dead class.
I don't play Battlegrounds anymore, but it's free, so I don't see any reason to complain about them showing up as event rewards. You still get three packs for Standard. It's not as if they would instead be Hero portraits for Standard/Wild - this event just might not happen in that case.
I think the Death Knight cards look good, but Liadrin just doesn't pop without her colors. A shame they couldn't have two separate filters - one for Death Knights and one for Silvermoon.
Seems like there's a bit of a theme of calling back to the Death Knight Hero cards, with Scourge Tamer and now this. Probably an auto-include for most Rogue decks, since you can cut your weakest card for a third copy of any good spell.
Yeah, the Blood Elves draw magical power from the Sunwell, but it has addictive properties. Stay away from it long enough (or, say, if it were destroyed in a horrific attack), and you can even die from the withdrawal effects. The Blood Knights, led by Lady Liadrin, are themselves Paladins.
Flavorwise, these cards should probably damage you the turn after you play them, but I guess they wanted to simplify it.
Obviously this could enable an insane combo deck, but my initial instinct is that it's really a meme card. If you see your opponent play this card, you're able to switch gears and play recklessly to stay alive, not having to worry about the long game at all. Sure, it's potentially a 20-mana cheat over two turns (I assume you'd die once the third turn starts?), but if you have enough resources to run over your opponent while they have no counter at all, you were probably in a winning position anyway.
While all of the monetary player gouging is certainly concerning, it's really the dire state of the actual card game that is making me consider quitting, as someone who has been playing since the last wave of closed beta. Hearthstone actually did a pretty good job for a number of years of avoiding too much power creep. Naturally, cards improved over what they were at launch, but the core of the game remained intact. The board state is almost irrelevant in recent metas. Game ending cards are now at 6-mana, because having them at 8 or 9 would likely see many not included in decks for being too slow. Cards regularly generate three other cards, so value isn't a thing you have to consider, you almost never run out of resources before the game is decided.
I'd like to see a return to form for the game, but it seems clear to me that while Blizzard are asking for more time/money, less money is being invested into the game itself. I sadly think its best days are behind it.
The flavor for Fancy Packaging is so good - the divine shield being a representation of the box you keep a figure in, to keep the figure/minion untouched.
Day 111 of reveals, eh? This is gonna be a big set.
I see Nostalgic Clown fitting into a lot of non-aggro decks with the lower power level following rotation. It's not flashy, but a solid midrange filler card.
Mmm. You would think the point is that you're supposed to cheat it out someway, but then you don't get the mini version in your hand. Perhaps there's some synergy with a card yet revealed that lowers the highest cost card in your hand or something.
Why would I make something so innocuous up? It's possible I'm misremembering, certainly. Looking at old threads when the announcement happened, Odd Shaman was the biggest Shaman archetype, so it was definitely a nerf in that specific deck. Maybe that's what I'm remembering.
That was usually the totem you most wanted to roll as Shaman way back, to hit higher breakpoints with Lightning Bolt or Lightning Storm. There was a reason most people referred to the replacement with Strength Totem as a nerf.
It's a shame we no longer get Solo Adventures of any kind. I gather that this is supposed to be the first meeting of the League of Explorers, but you don't feel it without some kind of story-based content.
My prediction for the 10th anniversary set is that we're going to get the default heroes as game-changing Legendaries - Jaina, Thrall etc. In earlier years, it was considered off-limits for Heroes to also be minions; Illidan Stormrage was even changed to Xavius when Demon Hunter was announced. But now we have so many alternate Heroes, many of which are represented as minions.
Of the elemental lords, Ragnaros is the only one treated as a marketing draw by Hearthstone.
You can also get 10 free burst damage with The Garden's Grace, and very consistenly get three 0-mana legendaries with The Countess.
I don't think the card is "broken", but it's very possible that Team 5 have stats that show it's a power outlier.
Much as with Classic, I enjoyed my time with Twist for about a month. It was fun to play with old cards, and I didn't even mind too much that there were only about four meta decks - knowing your opponent's likely cards and really eking out advantages where you can in the match-ups was fun.
But playing it long-term? For me, it's always going to come back to the fact that Standard is simply the format that gets the most attention. Why would I choose to play Wild, Classic or Twist as my main focus when Standard is clearly the priority?
It is part of Mage's class identity though, and the HS team have repeatedly said that Casino Mage-style decks tend to be some of the most popular to play, regardless of the win rate being good or bad. So it's unsurprising that it would continue to be printed.
While the wording is weird, I think the deathrattle seems correct - if you don't play the card(s) in time, they get taken from your hand and put into your opponent's. So unless you mana cheat this guy somehow, you can't kill a big guy and play it on the same turn, and you risk giving your opponent the card back if they can kill Kologarn.
It's Infuse, not Manathirst. Still, with Scale of Onyxia, it's not far off.
I wonder why Rogue is so prevalent? According to HSReplay, Thief Rogue is the most played deck in the meta, but it doesn't have the highest winrate, neither in Diamond (where Shockspitter Hunter, Nathria Imp Warlock and Pure Paladin are all ahead) or in Top Legend (where Shockspitter and Evolve Shaman are ahead).
Some serious buffs to Priest might be better than nerfing Rogue. It has a massively favorable winrate against Rogue - with its efficient clears and healing to stay out of range - but sucks against most everything else, so is basically a dead class.
I don't play Battlegrounds anymore, but it's free, so I don't see any reason to complain about them showing up as event rewards. You still get three packs for Standard. It's not as if they would instead be Hero portraits for Standard/Wild - this event just might not happen in that case.
I think the Death Knight cards look good, but Liadrin just doesn't pop without her colors. A shame they couldn't have two separate filters - one for Death Knights and one for Silvermoon.
Seems like there's a bit of a theme of calling back to the Death Knight Hero cards, with Scourge Tamer and now this. Probably an auto-include for most Rogue decks, since you can cut your weakest card for a third copy of any good spell.
Yeah, the Blood Elves draw magical power from the Sunwell, but it has addictive properties. Stay away from it long enough (or, say, if it were destroyed in a horrific attack), and you can even die from the withdrawal effects. The Blood Knights, led by Lady Liadrin, are themselves Paladins.
Flavorwise, these cards should probably damage you the turn after you play them, but I guess they wanted to simplify it.
Obviously this could enable an insane combo deck, but my initial instinct is that it's really a meme card. If you see your opponent play this card, you're able to switch gears and play recklessly to stay alive, not having to worry about the long game at all. Sure, it's potentially a 20-mana cheat over two turns (I assume you'd die once the third turn starts?), but if you have enough resources to run over your opponent while they have no counter at all, you were probably in a winning position anyway.