This was the first Wild deck I crafted during Rastakhan as a (relatively) new player when I find out there's no viable "Elemental" Shaman, i.e. Spell Shaman in Standard, despite a lot of support with Spirit of the Frog, Zentimo, Krag'wa etc. (to relive that WoW fantasy). I love the big miracle turns you can have with Spirit of the Frog and the overload management adds another layer of complexity. Shoutout to Roffle!
I hate Bloodreaver Gul'dan and any deck that plays it. You're gonna say "it's ten mana, it's supposed to be good", but with the heavy cheating of demons and cubing them, including that fornicating TuRtLE, you can slap it right when you have ten mana and have two voidlords, buffed voidwalkers, three doomguards and you're immune. It's mana cheating rewarding mana cheating. I know you should play around it, but you said unreasonable dislike.
Didn't Hearthstone's Thoughtsteal function exactly the same way in the beta? and Hearthstone putting more emphasis on feel-good feeling changed it to only make copies?
A lot of people are trying to maximise their gold and are f2p either as a principle or because they are unable or don't want to "deliver pizzas" (time constraints, health reasons, no opportunity; also you should know that not everyone lives in the US and earns dollars - an hour of work of a similar level part-time job would earn me 2 packs, not 15). People are definitely farming tavern brawls anytime there is like Battle of Bans, Three Cards, spells costing health instead of mana, because there are roughly two or three superior strategies that obliterate anything else.
Everybody is really upset that they can't farm this Tavern Brawl for easy gold as you can do in the constructed ones. I personally had a blast today, losing and then winning some matches - but what's most important, I've played like four Lorewalker Chos, a lots of Madder Bombers, a Void Crusher in a situation where he was actually good, played some Spare Parts and died to an Ancient Curse. This brawl is a nice breather.
Here comes a hot take - what about reverting more nerfs done to Shaman Galakrond? It seems that it wouldn't be busted in this meta, especially without Shudderwock.
It is strong, but not the best now. I don't know which build do you mean exactly (Totem or Overload package), but Raza Priest is a bad matchup, Odd DH counters your early totems and if you want to hold back to combo a large totem board you're behind on board. Quest Mage will also beat you if it has at least a semi-competent pilot. Secret Mage is really draw dependent. You can try playing it without Vessina or Stormbringer, they're not essential, and you will see for yourself. Instead of those two you can add some tech cards ( Nerub'ar Weblord to counter mages, Windfury against control instead of Stormbringer). That being said, it can definitely take you to Diamond 5 and if you are a good pilot then right to Legend. I suggest try it first, if you enjoy it then craft it, but otherwise maybe wait.
Does anybody know if I can disenchant Frenzied Felwing just in case and re-craft it later? Won't there be problems with adventure cards not being craftable until the adventure rotates?
@Sykomyke What do you mean by "abusing" the Charge mechanic? As any other mechanic or synergy, it has its legitimate use in trying to win. Anything that the game code allows (without external programs or hacking) is fair game. There's no difference between not using those cards to play the game and win and having them nerfed or HOF'ed.
I would even go as far that interactions that are overlooked or rare (Nozdormu skipping turns) are fair game and it's Blizzard's responsibility to fix them.
While a lot of cards that you have made seem interesting and I like them, I don't understand (and this is not a critique of your cards but rather Blizzard's design philosophy) how am I supposed to stick a totem if I can't compete for the early board. The fact that totems have zero attack leaves them completely defenseless unless you play taunts (otherwise the opponent just value trades into them), but those have to be understatted because they have taunt, which puts you behind even further. I won't even go into how easily you quickly can you lose board these days with rush cards - how are totems supposed to come back? Especially if you can't draw?
Shaman needs a good one drop, otherwise it's just not good - Tunnel Trogg should have been nerfed to something like Surging Tempest, but its main problem was that it was in the same meta with Totem Golem and Flamewreathed Faceless (also, I'm not sure, but probably Rockbiter Weapon was not nerfed yet). Similarly, Sludge Slurper is a really good one drop, but the problem were the Galakrond invokers and the Galakrond himself (as we can see after the Slurper's unnerf).
Flametongue Totem was nerfed because of the Wild Even shaman and it completely killed the card.
Mana Tide Totem is a three mana cycle one card (vs. anything with board presence) or three mana mill yourself (in control mirrors).
Card like Totemic Vigour is a tempo loss on turn four and minor nuissance for your opponent. On five with the reworked Totemic Might it's a two card combo for three 1/3-s and a 2/2. Compare with Force of Nature which is just borderline playable (these days mostly because of the 5cost spell and treant synergies, otherwise it was dead for quite some time) and in a class that gets much more token support and which has Savage Roar which at three mana is much more flexible than a five mana Bloodlust.
I like your Magma Totem, Hammer of Sparks (even though I liked the art of the Stormforged Axe) and Healing Stream. I think the direction of overload should be rather a lots of smaller overload (Feral Spirit doesn' have enough payoff) to maybe consider Unbound Elemental. I agree that removal of the overload goes against the idea - I think they just had to print it to enable the overload cards which didn't have enough payoff.
Speaking of that, your Magma Totem gave me an idea. Maybe a different interesting direction would be to make all totems with equal stats (2/2, 3/3) but with Can't Attack. They would help you fight for the board if you gave them taunt and there would actually be a payoff, at least in taking down opponent's minions. Instead of Bloodlust you could print a card like Totemic Awakening (2-4 mana): Your Can't attack minions can attack.
EDIT: This is a personal opinion. I am not a card designer and I am fairly new to Hearthstone (started at the end of Boomsday), but I've played a lot of shaman both in Wild and Standard.
I see this not as a control tool, but rather one of the smaller combos run by aggro enrage warrior - just imagine having Frothing Berserker ready to attack and opponent dropping a Bonechewer Vanguard. You cast Commanding Shout and you'll be featured by Trollden.
Well, the only cases (in Standard, ofc) in which it could give enough value are Flametongue Totem (that I haven't seen played since its nerf) and Mana Tide Totem which will just give meagre stats and mill you.
Well, this expansion is going to be interesting... I love that we are exploring Outland (even though they could still fit more Draenei art I think) and that Priest has been reworked. About the Demon Hunter, well, I am afraid that the standard meta is going to be all Demon Hunter against some kind of Control deck, most probably Taunt Warrior (we've got an unbelievable amount of taunts), just like the situation that led to the Rise of Shadows rogue nerfs. Demon Hunter has all the tempo rogue has and it has very good card draw, plus lifesteal so it won't die to other aggro (as Rogue could). But I'm probably wrong, as people always are with their predictions, so let's just have some fun with the new cards!
They mentioned it during the reveal stream I think - they said that Demon Hunter already has a lot of different things going on and that it doesn't make sense from a lore standpoint, as Primes are corrupted by Rustlegion and DHs fight the Legion.
Is the challenge mode the new promised gamemode or will that come only with the second expansion of the year?
This was the first Wild deck I crafted during Rastakhan as a (relatively) new player when I find out there's no viable "Elemental" Shaman, i.e. Spell Shaman in Standard, despite a lot of support with Spirit of the Frog, Zentimo, Krag'wa etc. (to relive that WoW fantasy). I love the big miracle turns you can have with Spirit of the Frog and the overload management adds another layer of complexity. Shoutout to Roffle!
I've been here since the beta (even though this wasn't recognised somehow) and I love it! You are doing a great job, congratulations!
I hate Bloodreaver Gul'dan and any deck that plays it. You're gonna say "it's ten mana, it's supposed to be good", but with the heavy cheating of demons and cubing them, including that fornicating TuRtLE, you can slap it right when you have ten mana and have two voidlords, buffed voidwalkers, three doomguards and you're immune. It's mana cheating rewarding mana cheating. I know you should play around it, but you said unreasonable dislike.
Edit: And you can have up to four of them!
Didn't Hearthstone's Thoughtsteal function exactly the same way in the beta? and Hearthstone putting more emphasis on feel-good feeling changed it to only make copies?
A lot of people are trying to maximise their gold and are f2p either as a principle or because they are unable or don't want to "deliver pizzas" (time constraints, health reasons, no opportunity; also you should know that not everyone lives in the US and earns dollars - an hour of work of a similar level part-time job would earn me 2 packs, not 15). People are definitely farming tavern brawls anytime there is like Battle of Bans, Three Cards, spells costing health instead of mana, because there are roughly two or three superior strategies that obliterate anything else.
Everybody is really upset that they can't farm this Tavern Brawl for easy gold as you can do in the constructed ones. I personally had a blast today, losing and then winning some matches - but what's most important, I've played like four Lorewalker Chos, a lots of Madder Bombers, a Void Crusher in a situation where he was actually good, played some Spare Parts and died to an Ancient Curse. This brawl is a nice breather.
Here comes a hot take - what about reverting more nerfs done to Shaman Galakrond? It seems that it wouldn't be busted in this meta, especially without Shudderwock.
It is strong, but not the best now. I don't know which build do you mean exactly (Totem or Overload package), but Raza Priest is a bad matchup, Odd DH counters your early totems and if you want to hold back to combo a large totem board you're behind on board. Quest Mage will also beat you if it has at least a semi-competent pilot. Secret Mage is really draw dependent. You can try playing it without Vessina or Stormbringer, they're not essential, and you will see for yourself. Instead of those two you can add some tech cards ( Nerub'ar Weblord to counter mages, Windfury against control instead of Stormbringer). That being said, it can definitely take you to Diamond 5 and if you are a good pilot then right to Legend. I suggest try it first, if you enjoy it then craft it, but otherwise maybe wait.
Does anybody know if I can disenchant Frenzied Felwing just in case and re-craft it later? Won't there be problems with adventure cards not being craftable until the adventure rotates?
@Sykomyke What do you mean by "abusing" the Charge mechanic? As any other mechanic or synergy, it has its legitimate use in trying to win. Anything that the game code allows (without external programs or hacking) is fair game. There's no difference between not using those cards to play the game and win and having them nerfed or HOF'ed.
I would even go as far that interactions that are overlooked or rare (Nozdormu skipping turns) are fair game and it's Blizzard's responsibility to fix them.
I've used the covid epidemic to earn those heroic adventures' cardback and this worked perfectly, first try! Thank you a lot!
While a lot of cards that you have made seem interesting and I like them, I don't understand (and this is not a critique of your cards but rather Blizzard's design philosophy) how am I supposed to stick a totem if I can't compete for the early board. The fact that totems have zero attack leaves them completely defenseless unless you play taunts (otherwise the opponent just value trades into them), but those have to be understatted because they have taunt, which puts you behind even further. I won't even go into how easily you quickly can you lose board these days with rush cards - how are totems supposed to come back? Especially if you can't draw?
Shaman needs a good one drop, otherwise it's just not good - Tunnel Trogg should have been nerfed to something like Surging Tempest, but its main problem was that it was in the same meta with Totem Golem and Flamewreathed Faceless (also, I'm not sure, but probably Rockbiter Weapon was not nerfed yet). Similarly, Sludge Slurper is a really good one drop, but the problem were the Galakrond invokers and the Galakrond himself (as we can see after the Slurper's unnerf).
Flametongue Totem was nerfed because of the Wild Even shaman and it completely killed the card.
Mana Tide Totem is a three mana cycle one card (vs. anything with board presence) or three mana mill yourself (in control mirrors).
Card like Totemic Vigour is a tempo loss on turn four and minor nuissance for your opponent. On five with the reworked Totemic Might it's a two card combo for three 1/3-s and a 2/2. Compare with Force of Nature which is just borderline playable (these days mostly because of the 5cost spell and treant synergies, otherwise it was dead for quite some time) and in a class that gets much more token support and which has Savage Roar which at three mana is much more flexible than a five mana Bloodlust.
I like your Magma Totem, Hammer of Sparks (even though I liked the art of the Stormforged Axe) and Healing Stream. I think the direction of overload should be rather a lots of smaller overload (Feral Spirit doesn' have enough payoff) to maybe consider Unbound Elemental. I agree that removal of the overload goes against the idea - I think they just had to print it to enable the overload cards which didn't have enough payoff.
Speaking of that, your Magma Totem gave me an idea. Maybe a different interesting direction would be to make all totems with equal stats (2/2, 3/3) but with Can't Attack. They would help you fight for the board if you gave them taunt and there would actually be a payoff, at least in taking down opponent's minions. Instead of Bloodlust you could print a card like Totemic Awakening (2-4 mana): Your Can't attack minions can attack.
EDIT: This is a personal opinion. I am not a card designer and I am fairly new to Hearthstone (started at the end of Boomsday), but I've played a lot of shaman both in Wild and Standard.
I see this not as a control tool, but rather one of the smaller combos run by aggro enrage warrior - just imagine having Frothing Berserker ready to attack and opponent dropping a Bonechewer Vanguard. You cast Commanding Shout and you'll be featured by Trollden.
Well, the only cases (in Standard, ofc) in which it could give enough value are Flametongue Totem (that I haven't seen played since its nerf) and Mana Tide Totem which will just give meagre stats and mill you.
I've just realised that the first strike is targetable, oh my god, that makes it so much better! Now I want to open it
I think this will just kill zoo decks and DH mirrors will be about who will get this card first.
Well, this expansion is going to be interesting... I love that we are exploring Outland (even though they could still fit more Draenei art I think) and that Priest has been reworked. About the Demon Hunter, well, I am afraid that the standard meta is going to be all Demon Hunter against some kind of Control deck, most probably Taunt Warrior (we've got an unbelievable amount of taunts), just like the situation that led to the Rise of Shadows rogue nerfs. Demon Hunter has all the tempo rogue has and it has very good card draw, plus lifesteal so it won't die to other aggro (as Rogue could). But I'm probably wrong, as people always are with their predictions, so let's just have some fun with the new cards!
I think it works like Echoing Ooze, but it only mentions stats, not all buffs, meaning you can't copy Ancestral Spirit or Blessing of Wisdom that you have on that minion.
They mentioned it during the reveal stream I think - they said that Demon Hunter already has a lot of different things going on and that it doesn't make sense from a lore standpoint, as Primes are corrupted by Rustlegion and DHs fight the Legion.