Yeah, I don't mind the lack of refund, but those are some pretty unrealistic goals. It's fine having some pack fillers that shine in formats like Arena/Expedition. I always think the goal should be to think more creatively beyond Ranked constructed (which is a mode I still enjoy a lot).
Super cool. I can actually play a few of these. I'm racking up shards from my three expeditions per week. I thought I had cracked the code into unlimited rewards playing those until I realized you're only limited to three.
I haven't found it to be oppressive, and it's often a dead card in my hand. I'd be curious to hear about its stats before taking action. I do like someone's point that it bends the meta away from control. I think one thing that would help is clarification on which kinds of ally abilities show up in the spell queue and can be countered. Some "Play" effects go in the queue and others don't. I think a nice way to balance the card would be to give it "refill your opponent's spell mana." That way it punishes big ally "Play" effects (but they still get the big ally), but isn't as devastating when they got nothing off their big spell.
Any word on Season rewards? I feel like finding details on Ranked Season's has been difficult. Also, the most annoying "feature" of the game is defaulting to Normal instead of Ranked every time you load the game.
Man, I love HS Arena, and Expedition was pretty great too. I can't believe you don't enjoy the format. The saddest development in HS for me has been Battlegrounds because Arena-aficionado Kripp has basically been ignoring Arena for weeks.
Neoguli. Exactly. 3-mana ruin your opponents' day. I also don't find you have to be in a strictly win-more situation for Rally to work. You can't be losing badly, but it's a great card to stabilize or provide a huge advantage in an otherwise even game.
I'm having an absolute blast with the game, but I've avoided deck recipes like the plague. I want to really discover something new like when I was playing HS for the first time. I've basically crafted only one main deck for Ranked Play so far. Unless I'm crazy, "Rally" seems to be an absolutely broken keyword and that's what I've designed my deck around with Demacia/Iona regions. It's working great so far. I have such a bank of dust and gold in HS that I was sort of annoyed that I couldn't craft a Champion that I wanted. But that frustration also reminded me of playing HS for the first time and building out slowly. I'm not ready to start just dropping money on WildCards, and that feels right.
I'm going to treat this as a first impressions thread. My background is that I played MTG from Revised/Dark until Weatherlight. I stopped playing in 1997 and didn't realize that it was more popular than ever until 2010 (I am old). I've played Hearthstone since shortly before GvG, and I've gone from being a pure F2P player to paying for most pre-orders (I am old, but I have income!)
I tried MTG: Arena last year. I got mana screwed half a dozen times and straight up didn't bother with it again. In this day in age the mulligan penalty and land system feel woefully outdated. And the game is as complex as ever, and it felt very difficult to keep track of synergies/strategies.
Runeterra truly is combining the best from Magic and Hearthstone. I've played about 5 hours today, and the game gets so much right. I'm really starting to love the alternating card-playing. At first it always felt best to slam a minion (ally?) because they're not affected by summoning sickness. But many times you're giving your opponent a chance to respond to your current board that you didn't need to give them before getting in a good attack. There's some great depth here, and everything from the spell mana pool to the spell stack to combat to various minion abilities is just fantastic. There are some powerful synergies, but so far at least nothing has felt unfair, and I've been able to follow what my opponent's been doing even with cards I've never seen before. That's huge.
The UI is not as good as Hearthstone, but what is. This is the next best one I've dealt with from a handful of other games I've tried (MTG:A, ESL, Shadowverse). It's hard to pinpoint exactly what needs to improve. Yes, the collection manager, but I don't have great suggestions. Yes, the board - I sometimes have a hard time seeing cards in my own hand and especially my opponents when they have known cards. Yes, the rewards system, which is confusing albeit generous from what I can tell. And the one thing that every other Hearthstone imitator has struggled with is unique and instantly-identifiable card art. I really agree with the above that it's hard to tell regions apart. It's sometimes hard to tell Champions apart from normal units. The spells do look very unique. Some of this will take some getting used to, but I wonder if there are improvements that can be made.
So far though, I think this is the best Hearthstone competitor to come along in forever. I look forward to playing it more.
That Air Raid isn't as flashy or powerful as the other three card reveals, but it's pretty sweet and flexible. Excellent synergy with the Paladin side quest.
I played through it while doing some other things and finished in over 45 minutes. Anyone know if there's a bonus reward for a speed run? It tracks your progress.
1) Dark Prophecy. Solid arena card (remember Arena? that other game mode?). I doubt it will see constructed play, but it's a nice little card for its cost.
2) Shotbot. Uh, am I crazy or is this actually better than Shielded Minibot, one of the best 2-drops ever printed? Super excellent card that I don't like.
3) Chaos Gazer: The word "playable" is tripping me up. Why not say "Corrupt a card in your opponent's hand." We're going to need some gameplay clarification, like if the card knows it can only corrupt stuff with a mana cost equal or less than your opponent's next turn. If your opponent is holding expensive cards on turn 3, will it essentially do nothing? Still, a potential combo disruptor in the late game. Play Malygos NOW or you don't play him at all.
4) Plague of Death plus 5 armor for one more mana? Seems good! What else were we doing with that last mana crystal anyway? They should tell us the hero power as well. Seems like a great card. Near auto-include for the battlecry effect and healing.
Great job with the site all around. You nailed down a clean visual style from the start that made it way more appealing than Hpwn, even during those few weeks when the google ads went wacky. I'm really looking forward to what you and the team are tackling this year.
I couldn't agree more. I sometimes can't even specify what Hearthstone does correctly with visual design, but it's absolutely been a pitfall of other games I've played including MTG Arena.
I can't help but agree with everyone here: these nerfs don't go far enough. Dragon's Pack is still broken, and the other three invoke cards (1 shaman and 2 neutral) are severely under-costed compared to other classes.
I would have nerfed Mogu Fleshshaper 1 more mana just to be safe, but I do hope it's dead. I agree with this change.
On the other hand, Faceless Corrupter is still obviously, undeniably overpowered. I simply don't get how the card was printed as is, and how little this nerf does to address it.
I can't imagine why they used an image of Yasuo for the cover image.
Yeah, I don't mind the lack of refund, but those are some pretty unrealistic goals. It's fine having some pack fillers that shine in formats like Arena/Expedition. I always think the goal should be to think more creatively beyond Ranked constructed (which is a mode I still enjoy a lot).
Super cool. I can actually play a few of these. I'm racking up shards from my three expeditions per week. I thought I had cracked the code into unlimited rewards playing those until I realized you're only limited to three.
I haven't found it to be oppressive, and it's often a dead card in my hand. I'd be curious to hear about its stats before taking action. I do like someone's point that it bends the meta away from control. I think one thing that would help is clarification on which kinds of ally abilities show up in the spell queue and can be countered. Some "Play" effects go in the queue and others don't. I think a nice way to balance the card would be to give it "refill your opponent's spell mana." That way it punishes big ally "Play" effects (but they still get the big ally), but isn't as devastating when they got nothing off their big spell.
Any word on Season rewards? I feel like finding details on Ranked Season's has been difficult. Also, the most annoying "feature" of the game is defaulting to Normal instead of Ranked every time you load the game.
Man, I love HS Arena, and Expedition was pretty great too. I can't believe you don't enjoy the format. The saddest development in HS for me has been Battlegrounds because Arena-aficionado Kripp has basically been ignoring Arena for weeks.
Neoguli. Exactly. 3-mana ruin your opponents' day. I also don't find you have to be in a strictly win-more situation for Rally to work. You can't be losing badly, but it's a great card to stabilize or provide a huge advantage in an otherwise even game.
I'm having an absolute blast with the game, but I've avoided deck recipes like the plague. I want to really discover something new like when I was playing HS for the first time. I've basically crafted only one main deck for Ranked Play so far. Unless I'm crazy, "Rally" seems to be an absolutely broken keyword and that's what I've designed my deck around with Demacia/Iona regions. It's working great so far. I have such a bank of dust and gold in HS that I was sort of annoyed that I couldn't craft a Champion that I wanted. But that frustration also reminded me of playing HS for the first time and building out slowly. I'm not ready to start just dropping money on WildCards, and that feels right.
I'm going to treat this as a first impressions thread. My background is that I played MTG from Revised/Dark until Weatherlight. I stopped playing in 1997 and didn't realize that it was more popular than ever until 2010 (I am old). I've played Hearthstone since shortly before GvG, and I've gone from being a pure F2P player to paying for most pre-orders (I am old, but I have income!)
I tried MTG: Arena last year. I got mana screwed half a dozen times and straight up didn't bother with it again. In this day in age the mulligan penalty and land system feel woefully outdated. And the game is as complex as ever, and it felt very difficult to keep track of synergies/strategies.
Runeterra truly is combining the best from Magic and Hearthstone. I've played about 5 hours today, and the game gets so much right. I'm really starting to love the alternating card-playing. At first it always felt best to slam a minion (ally?) because they're not affected by summoning sickness. But many times you're giving your opponent a chance to respond to your current board that you didn't need to give them before getting in a good attack. There's some great depth here, and everything from the spell mana pool to the spell stack to combat to various minion abilities is just fantastic. There are some powerful synergies, but so far at least nothing has felt unfair, and I've been able to follow what my opponent's been doing even with cards I've never seen before. That's huge.
The UI is not as good as Hearthstone, but what is. This is the next best one I've dealt with from a handful of other games I've tried (MTG:A, ESL, Shadowverse). It's hard to pinpoint exactly what needs to improve. Yes, the collection manager, but I don't have great suggestions. Yes, the board - I sometimes have a hard time seeing cards in my own hand and especially my opponents when they have known cards. Yes, the rewards system, which is confusing albeit generous from what I can tell. And the one thing that every other Hearthstone imitator has struggled with is unique and instantly-identifiable card art. I really agree with the above that it's hard to tell regions apart. It's sometimes hard to tell Champions apart from normal units. The spells do look very unique. Some of this will take some getting used to, but I wonder if there are improvements that can be made.
So far though, I think this is the best Hearthstone competitor to come along in forever. I look forward to playing it more.
Great review. Do we know when rest of the cards are being revealed? Monday is a holiday and it releases on Tuesday!
Four very nice cards. Everyone is going to sleep on Rising Winds. Don't sleep on Rising Winds. It's going to be a staple card like Branching Paths.
That Air Raid isn't as flashy or powerful as the other three card reveals, but it's pretty sweet and flexible. Excellent synergy with the Paladin side quest.
I played through it while doing some other things and finished in over 45 minutes. Anyone know if there's a bonus reward for a speed run? It tracks your progress.
1) Dark Prophecy. Solid arena card (remember Arena? that other game mode?). I doubt it will see constructed play, but it's a nice little card for its cost.
2) Shotbot. Uh, am I crazy or is this actually better than Shielded Minibot, one of the best 2-drops ever printed? Super excellent card that I don't like.
3) Chaos Gazer: The word "playable" is tripping me up. Why not say "Corrupt a card in your opponent's hand." We're going to need some gameplay clarification, like if the card knows it can only corrupt stuff with a mana cost equal or less than your opponent's next turn. If your opponent is holding expensive cards on turn 3, will it essentially do nothing? Still, a potential combo disruptor in the late game. Play Malygos NOW or you don't play him at all.
4) Plague of Death plus 5 armor for one more mana? Seems good! What else were we doing with that last mana crystal anyway? They should tell us the hero power as well. Seems like a great card. Near auto-include for the battlecry effect and healing.
THANK YOU FOR THE ARENA BALANCE CHANGES! SOME OF US STILL PLAY THAT GAME MODE! UNNERF THE ARENA MENU BUTTON!
I finally hit Legend for the first time in September. Fun to do once, but I never feel the need to go above Rank 5.
Great job with the site all around. You nailed down a clean visual style from the start that made it way more appealing than Hpwn, even during those few weeks when the google ads went wacky. I'm really looking forward to what you and the team are tackling this year.
Excellent post. I may check a few out. Thanks!
I couldn't agree more. I sometimes can't even specify what Hearthstone does correctly with visual design, but it's absolutely been a pitfall of other games I've played including MTG Arena.
I can't help but agree with everyone here: these nerfs don't go far enough. Dragon's Pack is still broken, and the other three invoke cards (1 shaman and 2 neutral) are severely under-costed compared to other classes.
I would have nerfed Mogu Fleshshaper 1 more mana just to be safe, but I do hope it's dead. I agree with this change.
On the other hand, Faceless Corrupter is still obviously, undeniably overpowered. I simply don't get how the card was printed as is, and how little this nerf does to address it.