I'm genuinely surprised at those rogue stats, especially for pogo rogue. Maybe I just got lucky, maybe those lists aren't running double sap, or maybe my opponents have been playing the deck wrong, but to me it's felt like one of the easier matchups because of the lack of pressure from the pally and ease of dealing with their mid-game threats. It also helps that the deck doesn't have an answer to a stealthed Spirit of the Shark. By the time they can finally break their Mechano-Eggs you should have Pogo-hoppers that can fight toe-to-toe with Robosaurs.
^ Against mech hunter and especially paladin, half the time the biggest concern isn't even the big burly mech itself, but all the deathrattles it has stored up, and the potential to reanimate it if you kill it. That's why silences, bounces and transform effects are so much better at dealing with mechs than just "destroy a mech". The last thing you want to do is put that juiced up Mechano-Egg in the Kangor pool.
So no, I don't really expect EMP Operative to become a popular tech option. Owls and Spellbreakers for the classes that don't have access to better options are likely though. Hell, don't be surprised if you encounter a few cheeky Warriors running Tinkmaster Overspark, especially in the slower, more controlling lists.
Definitely Rogue. Just running saps puts the paladin in such a difficult spot. Not to mention the possibility of more saps, vanishes, walk the planks, etc. from spell lackeys.
I don't see much of a point to this until/unless Specialist events and tourneys become more mainstream. As it stands, the vast overwhelming majority of players won't ever play the format so there's no point in them learning about or advising others on sideboard options. It'd be a hassle to implement for something that would just remain blank for most deck submissions anyway, and can be addressed in the deck description/guide if you really want to.
I don't think the concept of shuffling permanently buffed cards into your deck is inherently overpowered, especially since you typically pay the price for it in stats/mana. Insofar as problems do occur, it's always because there is a card that facilitates searching for the buffed cards, EG Shiny Cavernfinder in Kingsbane rogue, Master's Call in beast hunter, etc. The buff effect is only as strong as your means of reliably finding it are.
That said I do think Master's call is probably too powerful as it singlehandedly enables the whole beast hunter concept. Without it they probably wouldn't even run Dire Frenzy, because stronk cards on the bottom of your deck are still dead cards. In a meta without Dire frenzy it'd probably still be on the balanced side but the two of them together are pretty crazy.
Prelate is a Timmy-trap card. The promise of infinite, giant payoff belies the fact that it's an impractical and understatted minion. Having infinite value rarely matters and if a meta were ever to come around where it did, people would tech in owls and spellbreakers to counter it. I'm not saying you can't have fun and occasionally win big with the card, but it's nowhere remotely near a balance concern in normal hearthstone. Probably a decent card versus adventure bosses though.
I'm aware of the interaction between Myra's and shuffle effects, like I said i don't have a Myra's myself so I can't attest to it personally. If the deck does turn out to be more than a meme, and it certainly looks like it now that you can tutor for bunnies with Witchwood piper, Myra's is probably the next legend I'm crafting. I happened to open a Lynchen and a golden Tak Nozwhisker so it certainly seems like the universe is pointing me in a that direction.
Regarding Magic Carpet I've been unimpressed with it in the few games I tried. Seems like a bit of a win more card in that it does nothing w/o the cards you already rely on to win, lackeys and pogos. You also have Zilliax(es) and rushy lackeys, not to mention vanish and whatever spells your spell lackey gives you, so the effect is a bit redundant.
As far as I'm aware the Whizzbang deck recipes are the same ones the game recommends to you when you open the deck-building tab, except for the "classic" one which is always the same. Unless they'd stop suggesting new themed decklists with every release there isn't much added work in having Whizz copy those lists, so that's not really an argument against the card.
Personally I think it'd be a great move for F2P/casual players, but I suppose the counterpoint from the business side is that Whizzbang makes actually collecting cards even less important. You can't add your own stuff to a whizzbang deck, so if all you're playing is Whizzbang why even have a collection?
Even if they don't make Whizzbang evergreen I do expect blizzard to continue to print cards like him, Elysiana, both Elises and Prince Malchezaar, not to mention discover effects in general that allow casual players to experience cards they don't own.
I've always felt that that is one of Hearthstone's biggest stengths compared to other (paper) card games.
I've been playing pogorogue casually since before the buff. Without card draw it's a bit of a meme deck even if you do manage to shuffle a million pogos into your deck, but if you include Myra's, which I don't have, I assume it becomes consistent(ly terrifying) in the late game.
It's probably fair to say that the game is typically decided by Shark + Miscreant though. The Pogos are the flashy win condition, but it's the lackeys with double battlecry that are the unsung workhorses of the deck. Coin or no coin also makes a world of difference because of the miscreant. The deck is obviously a control-killer but it doesn't auto-lose to aggro if/when you can get a nutty shark turn to swing the board.
The trouble is that then becomes a method of card-purchasing (albeit in a fairly lengthy process).
You pay money for the adventure. You complete the adventure.
You then choose a card (obv a legendary) to make golden. You dust said legendary.
You re-craft that legendary (if you want). You then craft any legendary you want.
The cost of a legendary now becomes equivalent to the exact cost of the adventure. This may not sound like much, but it's actually a HUGE deal. It changes everything about the game. The game becomes a form of Pay-To-Win since now you can guarantee a way to buy a specific card. It place a real-world monetary value on legendary cards. This means that obtaining cards in the game has a real-world equivalent value and the game can be legally evaluated as being a form of gambling.
It would then have a knock-on effect of requiring legislation and stringent rules put into place, as well as a new age limit (to prevent children access to gambling). It's a big old kettle of fish right there... ;-)
If it's a one-time-only deal I don't see how it's substantively different from offering a "free" (golden) legendary with a pre-order bundle or upon completion of an adventure, which happens all the time.
If it were repeatable, sure, it'd be a money-to-dust faucet, but I don't think that's the suggestion here. Even if it were, you could still "fix" that by pricing it in such a way that buying packs is more efficient on average.
As for the gambling legislation point, that's already an issue with card packs and lootboxes. This wouldn't change that in the slightest. If anything, this is less random than just buying packs (if repeatable, which again doesn't seem to be the proposal) because you always get a golden legend, so it'd be easier to argue in court how it constitutes a legitimate purchase and not a gamble.
I've been playing since old gods and it's been 7 golden legendaries from packs so far. It sounds like you're really unlucky. Then again getting a golden Flark's Boomzooka, Wilfred Fizzlebang or Icehowl isn't exactly the epitome of luck either, but I'm not bitter at all.
Yeah, the heist has been acting pretty wonky since the boomsday buff patch as best I can tell. Before then it was working fine for me, both qua portraits and properly recording results.
Ever since though..... On the one hand it awarded me a win with all classes on all the chapters, but it refuses to record new wins with specific hero powers or decks. It's weird.
I'm genuinely surprised at those rogue stats, especially for pogo rogue. Maybe I just got lucky, maybe those lists aren't running double sap, or maybe my opponents have been playing the deck wrong, but to me it's felt like one of the easier matchups because of the lack of pressure from the pally and ease of dealing with their mid-game threats. It also helps that the deck doesn't have an answer to a stealthed Spirit of the Shark. By the time they can finally break their Mechano-Eggs you should have Pogo-hoppers that can fight toe-to-toe with Robosaurs.
^ Against mech hunter and especially paladin, half the time the biggest concern isn't even the big burly mech itself, but all the deathrattles it has stored up, and the potential to reanimate it if you kill it. That's why silences, bounces and transform effects are so much better at dealing with mechs than just "destroy a mech". The last thing you want to do is put that juiced up Mechano-Egg in the Kangor pool.
So no, I don't really expect EMP Operative to become a popular tech option. Owls and Spellbreakers for the classes that don't have access to better options are likely though. Hell, don't be surprised if you encounter a few cheeky Warriors running Tinkmaster Overspark, especially in the slower, more controlling lists.
Definitely Rogue. Just running saps puts the paladin in such a difficult spot. Not to mention the possibility of more saps, vanishes, walk the planks, etc. from spell lackeys.
I don't see much of a point to this until/unless Specialist events and tourneys become more mainstream. As it stands, the vast overwhelming majority of players won't ever play the format so there's no point in them learning about or advising others on sideboard options. It'd be a hassle to implement for something that would just remain blank for most deck submissions anyway, and can be addressed in the deck description/guide if you really want to.
I don't think the concept of shuffling permanently buffed cards into your deck is inherently overpowered, especially since you typically pay the price for it in stats/mana. Insofar as problems do occur, it's always because there is a card that facilitates searching for the buffed cards, EG Shiny Cavernfinder in Kingsbane rogue, Master's Call in beast hunter, etc. The buff effect is only as strong as your means of reliably finding it are.
That said I do think Master's call is probably too powerful as it singlehandedly enables the whole beast hunter concept. Without it they probably wouldn't even run Dire Frenzy, because stronk cards on the bottom of your deck are still dead cards. In a meta without Dire frenzy it'd probably still be on the balanced side but the two of them together are pretty crazy.
Prelate is a Timmy-trap card. The promise of infinite, giant payoff belies the fact that it's an impractical and understatted minion. Having infinite value rarely matters and if a meta were ever to come around where it did, people would tech in owls and spellbreakers to counter it. I'm not saying you can't have fun and occasionally win big with the card, but it's nowhere remotely near a balance concern in normal hearthstone. Probably a decent card versus adventure bosses though.
I'm aware of the interaction between Myra's and shuffle effects, like I said i don't have a Myra's myself so I can't attest to it personally. If the deck does turn out to be more than a meme, and it certainly looks like it now that you can tutor for bunnies with Witchwood piper, Myra's is probably the next legend I'm crafting. I happened to open a Lynchen and a golden Tak Nozwhisker so it certainly seems like the universe is pointing me in a that direction.
Regarding Magic Carpet I've been unimpressed with it in the few games I tried. Seems like a bit of a win more card in that it does nothing w/o the cards you already rely on to win, lackeys and pogos. You also have Zilliax(es) and rushy lackeys, not to mention vanish and whatever spells your spell lackey gives you, so the effect is a bit redundant.
As far as I'm aware the Whizzbang deck recipes are the same ones the game recommends to you when you open the deck-building tab, except for the "classic" one which is always the same. Unless they'd stop suggesting new themed decklists with every release there isn't much added work in having Whizz copy those lists, so that's not really an argument against the card.
Personally I think it'd be a great move for F2P/casual players, but I suppose the counterpoint from the business side is that Whizzbang makes actually collecting cards even less important. You can't add your own stuff to a whizzbang deck, so if all you're playing is Whizzbang why even have a collection?
Even if they don't make Whizzbang evergreen I do expect blizzard to continue to print cards like him, Elysiana, both Elises and Prince Malchezaar, not to mention discover effects in general that allow casual players to experience cards they don't own.
I've always felt that that is one of Hearthstone's biggest stengths compared to other (paper) card games.
I've been playing pogorogue casually since before the buff. Without card draw it's a bit of a meme deck even if you do manage to shuffle a million pogos into your deck, but if you include Myra's, which I don't have, I assume it becomes consistent(ly terrifying) in the late game.
It's probably fair to say that the game is typically decided by Shark + Miscreant though. The Pogos are the flashy win condition, but it's the lackeys with double battlecry that are the unsung workhorses of the deck. Coin or no coin also makes a world of difference because of the miscreant. The deck is obviously a control-killer but it doesn't auto-lose to aggro if/when you can get a nutty shark turn to swing the board.
If it's a one-time-only deal I don't see how it's substantively different from offering a "free" (golden) legendary with a pre-order bundle or upon completion of an adventure, which happens all the time.
If it were repeatable, sure, it'd be a money-to-dust faucet, but I don't think that's the suggestion here. Even if it were, you could still "fix" that by pricing it in such a way that buying packs is more efficient on average.
As for the gambling legislation point, that's already an issue with card packs and lootboxes. This wouldn't change that in the slightest. If anything, this is less random than just buying packs (if repeatable, which again doesn't seem to be the proposal) because you always get a golden legend, so it'd be easier to argue in court how it constitutes a legitimate purchase and not a gamble.
I've been playing since old gods and it's been 7 golden legendaries from packs so far. It sounds like you're really unlucky. Then again getting a golden Flark's Boomzooka, Wilfred Fizzlebang or Icehowl isn't exactly the epitome of luck either, but I'm not bitter at all.
Yeah, the heist has been acting pretty wonky since the boomsday buff patch as best I can tell. Before then it was working fine for me, both qua portraits and properly recording results.
Ever since though..... On the one hand it awarded me a win with all classes on all the chapters, but it refuses to record new wins with specific hero powers or decks. It's weird.