Not sure why people are saying the Maiev nerf is harsh. The extra 1 health never had much of an influence outside of the very early game when 1 health really matters. Her strength is the ability to make small gold investments for large benefits later, not giving them +1/+1. With any other hero, when you roll down to 1 or 2 gold and you finally find that triple or Baron or whatever, you're forced to freeze, costing you 1 gold on top of the gold you're wasting. With Maiev, that's not the case, and it's still the same after the nerf. There will be times where this nerf has an influence, but it feels like a placebo nerf to me. 

Same goes for the buffs to Party Elemental, Arcane Assistant, Bloodsail Cannoneer and Salty Looter. Of course, there will be times in which 1 health or 1 attack really matters, but in a game where everyone's minions' attack and health is in the 20s or 30s, it's rarely going to be relevant. 

I think the Chenvaala buff is quite interesting. With it, you can buy a minion on turn 1, and then skip levelling and buy a minion on turn 2. Then on turn 3, you can buy a minion, making levelling cost 0 gold. Will that actually make a significant difference? Most likely, no. It has the same problem as Bartendotron in that if you want to power level, just play Omu instead.

One thing I'm not seeing many people comment on is Gentle Djinni going down a tavern tier. It gives you a free unit after each combat and an extra body during combat. The majority of the strength of elementals comes from playing them (with cards like Rag, Nomi, Majordomo, Party Elemental, etc), so getting a free one every turn with the opportunity for strong battle cry effects (like Arcane Assistant, Tavern Tempest, Stasis Elemental, etc) and potential tripling seems pretty insane.

The nerfs were only two days ago, but I can't disenchant Guardian Animals for 400 dust. Have I missed something?

The image of Headless Horseman Green Uther saying "By the Holy Light!" is really amusing to m

I actually think the art looks really cool. Might also just be me getting quite bored of all the Paladin skins looking very similar (we don't talk about Sir Annoy-O). I'm probably going to get a ton of flame for this, but I don't mind not being able to see the horse in the skin. Did you know in the full art for Gul'Dan he's holding a sword and we can't see that either? I realise it's not quite the same, and I do agree that it would have been really cool to see the horse, but I think it looks good regardless.

The post says this is to "make way for a new rating system". There will probably be a ranking system akin to constructed, and possible rewards for earning a certain rank. Maybe BG seasons could also have similar ranked rewards that constructed does, incentivising players to play both to maximise rewards. In theory, after people are done with their constructed climb, they'd shift over to BG to climb that ladder instead. It's a clever way of keeping people playing the game for longer periods at a time.

If I recall correctly, this change is purely visual and your actual MMR stays the same. Just like how in Constructed after the ranks reset, you're not playing against Bronze 10 players, you're playing against people that ended the season close to where you did as well, the same applies here.

However, I could be completely misinformed.

Here's my first idea, although it seems someone else had the same idea for the main spell (p.s. there's literally no other art online for this):

Refreshment spells:

Show Spoiler

I might make more Refreshemtn spells, but I just did this on my phone and it was painful enough. I will post feedback to other peoples' cards later once I get back to my computer.

EDIT: Looks like @OldenGolden said what I wanted to say before me. Maybe I should read the replies before commenting.

That Imprisonment card is really cool, it reminds me of Conclave Tribunal from MtG. However, I think it should be reworded to something like "Choose a minion. It goes Dormant until you control no minions". Although it doesn't read as nicely, I think this makes it more consistent compared to cards like Maiev Shadowsong and clarifies the effect. I feel like it could be a little oppressive if Paladin ever gets a solid aggro/token deck that can churn out dudes fast enough, but I really like the idea. 

For a period of time, on the season reset every month Blizzard would send an email with statistics about your most played class, the class with the highest winrate, your most frequent opponents, your best and worst matchups, etc and sometimes some silly ones too. They were fun little things but largely inconsequential, and they had discontinued them for a long time. I think you need to opt into emails from Blizzard to see them, otherwise you can't. The most recent one I have is from before Saviour of Uldum.

I think Blizzard has a new methodology of nerfs, where they would rather do multiple, smaller nerf patches than completely obliterating a deck and the cards for all eternity in a single patch. As someone on Reddit put it, "nerfing using a scalpel instead of a chainsaw". I think Blizzard wants to make small changes, then take a step back and see how everything changes. If this nerf puts Druid in its place and they can no longer consistently cheat out huge spells on early turns, then that's done and they can look to other decks. If this nerf causes Paladin's winrate to skyrocket, then they'll probably (hopefully) nerf that deck, but there's no point in nerfing multiple decks at once, preemptively predicting what decks will be strong in the future. Let's say that this nerf makes Druid much weaker and its combo is much less consistent. While this would remove one of Priest's counters, it would also remove one of Mage's counters, and Mage beats Priest quite handily. As a result, there's no need to nerf Priest since it's been automatically kept in check by the natural flow of the meta (yes this is oversimplified and probably not what's going to happen, but it's an example). This is a much better method than Blizzard's old method of gutting cards completely beyond space and time.

I'm surprised Ras Frostwhisper isn't on this list. That dude single-handedly swings games so often for me, I think he is quite underrated. I'm not surprised Speaker Gidra is popular; there's literally nothing weak with that card. Even if you play a 2 mana spell with her that's a 3 mana 3/7 rush windfury, and on turn 5 that can clear up some minions and still pose a threat on the board.

I actually don't think Druid's problem is Guardian Animals or Survival of the Fittest, but rather Lightning Bloom, Kael'thas Sunstrider and Overgrowth. Because of Kael'thas Sunstrider, Blizzard can't print good low-cost and high-cost spells for any class, or else we see the shenanigans that are happening right now. An interesting nerf idea for Lightning Bloom I saw on a forum thread was instead of 0 mana gain 2 mana crystals & overload 2, why not something like 2 mana gain 4 mana crystals & overload 2? It's the same effect; you get 2 bonus mana and you get overloaded the next turn, but you need 2 mana to play it, meaning you can no longer turn 1 Coin/Innervate > Lightning Bloom > Overgrowth, or Lightning Bloom with no mana left. This nerf eliminates some problematic features of the card such as being a 0 mana fodder for Kael'thas Sunstrider and early-turn mana cheating, but keeps in some of the card's fantasy, like Lightning Bloom into Kael'thas Sunstrider on turn 5. If Blizzard changes Kael'thas Sunstrider also to only work while it's on the board, you can get rid of that interaction too.

I think another thing for consideration is that Kael'thas Sunstrider works multiple times in a turn, and with Druid's multitude of 0 mana spells, it's very likely they'll be able to play big spells for free many times as well. I think Blizzard has tried recently to make 0 mana stuff a prominent feature, but it turned out to be very very strong. A simple nerf to "every third spell you cast costs 1" would be pretty drastic and might be a bit too harsh combined with other nerfs. 

That said, this expansion is off the charts in terms of power level, and most classes have a competitively viable deck that is strong in its own right. I don't think Secret Passage is as problematic as people think; it's early into the new expansion, the meta will adjust to these hyper-aggro decks. The hyper-aggro face Rogue has no board stabilisation, meaning it has to keep tempo throughout the game until the opponent dies. The instant the opponent can start efficiently removing minions, the game is lost for Rogue. It's a fragile game plan that works now because everyone's trying new decks and being very greedy about it, and none of the decks have been optimised.

Considering the fact that none of these decks are optimised, isn't it really early to call for nerfs? All classes have at least one deck that feels strong, and yes, maybe Druid's antics are a bit unbearable at times, but this expansion's power level is through the roof, and it's genuinely been the most fun I've had in Hearthstone. It's literally been one day, people don't know what the best deck is. People haven't built their decks to counter matchups, they've built them to try out the new cards and the new mechanics. Maybe after the meta stabilises, these cards won't be as problematic as they seem.

Beast Druid's looking like a spicy contender for Day 1 nerfs. However, I don't think it's fair to say that it's going to be a Druidstone just yet (It's literally been 10 hours since the expansion dropped). There isn't an aggro deck that can punish Druid's Overgrowth on 4, which is crucial as it lets them cast Kael'thas Sunstrider on turn 5. Maybe once the hype has settled a bit, perhaps we'll see some aggro Rogues, Hunters and DHs that can put pressure on the Druid and force them to play slower. 

Druid seems to be the most solid deck so far, but I think there are definitely decks that can compete.

This expansion actually seems quite bad for aggro: tons of late-game decks with strong control cards and buffs that overrun the aggro decks. Druid and Warrior can cheat stuff out super early, Paladin and Priest have a multitude of buffs and generally beefy minions and ways to outheal the damage from aggro. I played a few games of tempo DH, but it feels really quite weak. You have to rely on getting soul fragments shuffled early on and hitting the payoff cards to deal enough damage through their control cards and kill them before they stabilise. Weapon Rogue is fun, but the deck I've had the most success with is Galakrond Rogue with Polkelt, Jandice and Lilian. I think the only classes that aren't in a good spot are Mage, Hunter and Shaman. Mage was given a bunch of combo stuff that just doesn't seem to work well, while the other two classes felt like a hodgepodge of subpar cards thrown together.

I just opened Alura and two copies of Guardian Animals, so I have to choose between Pure Paladin or Beast Druid as my next deck. 

The expansion drops at 2 am for me. 

Guess I've got another sleepless night.

I like this thread, it's really obvious to think about all cards that the community have been wrong about being too weak (*cough cough* Prince Keleseth, Zilliax, The Caverns Below, Skull of the Man'ari, Corridor Creeper, the list goes on) but overhyped cards are typically forgotten.

My predictions for overhyped cards this expansion are Glide and Star Student Stelina. Glide may be strong, but I highly doubt it's as insane of a control killer as people say. It's definitely going to punish ultra greedy plays and combo decks, but otherwise, it's not that detrimental. The card is awful against aggro since you give them refill, and they'll have 5 cards on their turn while you have 4. Considering slower decks that like hoarding their hand like Galakrond Priest, I think that with knowledge of this card existing, they will have to switch their gameplan and start being more frivolous with their resources. Obviously this isn't always the case, but on the flip side, think about how often you'd get the dream where you shuffle their entire hand full of board clears and removal into their deck and they draw 4 unplayable cards. It's a possibility, but the only time it's going to happen consistently is if you can easily dump your hand and play Glide on turn 4, while your opponent can't play any cards. Considering DH's current level of card draw and refill, this will only be played for its disruption effect, which I don't think is as valuable as people say.

In the case of Star Student Stelina, it's a more expensive Madame Lazul that's also conditional. This card has no tempo, and it's only valuable when you opponent has a few significant cards in their hand. If you're against a Spell Druid with 9 cards in hand, how often are you going to hit Kael'thas Sunstrider or Exotic Mountseller? And besides, if you do hit them, your opponent will just Glowfly Swarm you next turn because you spent 4 mana on a 4/3 which you could have spent on any other card that does something significant. Even in cases where getting rid of your opponent's card is good, those decks don't want to play a 4 mana 4/3. This card's fantasy of negating your opponent's big removal spell the next turn is like a much, much worse Loatheb; it's less consistent and has worse tempo. From what I've seen in the pre-release streams, both cards were clunky to play and clogged the hand more often than not.

Then again, these cards could be absolutely insane and warp the meta beyond space and time, but we'll have to see.

Lilian doesn't have to be played in Stealth Rogue. It's a better Piloted Shredder, and any Rogue deck can play this. It's a card that your opponent has to remove, and its deathrattle makes it a problem in doing so. Worst case scenario, you use the 4 damage to clear something on the board, and the deathrattle clears another one; that's a pretty good swing in tempo. It's not an amazingly flashy card that has a huge board impact, it just looks like a solid card with a simple, solid effect. It reminds me of how people saw Zilliax as only decent because it didn't have great stats or a very strong effect.

That said, it's still possible that this card is trash. 

I should have been more clear: Vectus requires 2 distinct deathrattles for both whelps to gain a deathrattle. I know it's not what the card says, but from the reveal streams that appears to be how the card functions. I could also be wrong, I can't quite remember.

I agree, it's like how in some deathrattle/egg decks, its strength doesn't necessarily come from what pops out of the egg, but the fact that the egg itself becomes a threat that needs to be dealt with. Egg Warrior doesn't play Serpent Egg for the Sea Serpent, it's played to be able to cast Inner Rage and Rampage on the egg without having to worry about it being susceptible to hard removal because of its deathrattle.

Of course different deathrattle decks have different purposes, Scarab Egg was played in Zoolock because it could be popped with their sacrifice cards like EVIL Genius and Grim Rally. Deathrattles in Big Rogue were threatening because of their activators to get benefit from huge deathrattles like Carnivorous Cube and Silver Vanguard. 

Hunter is a different question because it doesn't seek to directly benefit from the deathrattle itself, but like Warrior, it doesn't have deathrattle synergy that makes the deathrattle threatening. It's threatening because it's a beast that benefits from buffs, and it has a deathrattle that makes it tricky to remove.