Daily deals would require us to get into the game in the first place, which many players cannot at the moment due to the return of the black screen. They pretty much fucked up the update (again). Not that I am surprised, this was totally expectable. I really like the game but it is managed rather poorly in my opinion, especially in comparison to HS or LoR.
Well, you have this discussion with pretty much every card game. In Magic you could fill entire books with people suspecting rigged matchmaking (not that there has ever been the slightest shred of credible proof, on the contrary).
I just want to throw in two points:
Blizzard has no motive to implement such an algorithm or more generally to rig games against individual players; every unfavorable matchup for you is a favorable matchup for the other player; why should they favor one player and disfavor the other?; there is simply no motive here
Statistical analysis of matchmaking data would likely unveil a rigged matchmaker; the data is there, many people use deck trackers (just look over at HS replay); to this day however nothing emerged
Nice work, I appreciate it. Thanks for sharing. Although I must confess I found the previous iterations more on spot. I think there are quite a few dubious decisions here. Theremon already underlined many of the problems. Just want to point out Battle Felguard, which is a blatant powercreep on Leroy (at least you could only run one copy of Leroy). Leroy was HoFed for a reason.
Some other thoughts:
Storm Arrows: Overcosted board wipe (in my opinion also out of flavor in Hunter but that is up for discussion)
Aeladori Prophet: Really like it, I think the mechanic is a great addition to DH; not sure about the powerlevel though
Illidari Dancer: Nice idea but simply no, e.g. Marrow Slicer, hero power (your +2 version) and this card would result in a 8/6 body and 12 damage in face if your opponent has no taunt up as well as a 4/1 weapon for next turn all for 10 mana; thats a big no for me
Well the reason is Blizzard making more money, apart from that with EUR this has always been the case. Because in Blizz-Land USD = EUR, meaning a player from (mainland) Europe usually pays a ~15% premium compared to a US player. For some currencies it might even be worse, I don't know. Has annoyed me for a time and kept me from a couple of purchases.
Thanks for the latest issue, I appreciate it. I think I'm in a kind of love-hate relationship with Thassa, she can be pretty cool but also really annoying. Quite a few of the presented cards will rotate out of standard soon though as you said. Here a couple of other non-rotating considerations:
Gadwick the Wizened (draw engine)
Brazen Borrower (not abusable with blink but great instant speed removal with body)
Arcanist's Owl (flyer with tutoring)
Solemn Simulacrum (some late deck ramping and thinning)
That said the mono-blue version could use a late game win condition other than Oracle, currently I'm seeing Thassa almost exclusively in Azorius to abuse Yorion. But we'll see what the next set brings. :)
I cannot give you a real answer to this as I don't know how the program exactly resolves the discovery choices (and to my knowledge Blizzard has never said how they are doing it exactly). I would like to point out a couple of issues though:
Your conclusion (or the videos) seems to be flawed; if this would be actually resolved like you describe in the last sentence (which I don't think) the probability of getting Rotnest Drake would actually be even higher (e.g. if the first card option is the other class dragon the second option would not be 25% but already 50% as there are no duplicates offered)
Having said this based on my experience of discovery results I am pretty sure that this does not work as you described (can't give you any proof though)
But hey I'm not a statistics expert, so feel free to proof me wrong. Besides even an expert (outside Blizzard) might not be able to answer this properly without the knowledge how this is exactly resolved by the program. I guess there are multiple options.
It's really imbalanced right now. Mage and Priest are by far the best classes, other classes such as Warrior and Shaman are in the dumpster. I had several rather high-win runs and it was more or less the same: Get a good class and take every card generation offered. If you manage to get a fair amount of card generation and a somewhat decent curve that is easily a potential high win deck. In the higher win area, lets say 7+ wins, I mostly encountered value decks and occasionally some tempo decks. Often games just felt like it came down to who had more luck with card generation.
I don't know when I encountered the last Res Priest. They are pretty rare, so no problem here. Although I fully understand that this archetype can be very frustrating. The underlying problem with Res in HS is that it was implemented rather poorly. In MTGA you have a refined graveyard mechanic with a lot of tools and interaction possibilities. In HS well you have nothing apart from a couple of cards with Res printed on it. My opinion is that printing res cards without even a crude graveyard mechanic was a mistake. I just hope that they will not print further Res cards without implementing some sort of basic graveyard mechanic (which they will probably not do due to complexity).
Dropped Raza on Turn 5, my opponent conceded after I hit the hero power button like 8-10 times. Almost felt bad. Obviously the team put absolutely no effort into this.
I agree with you that we don't know the details on the new system and that we cannot properly judge until we know this details. I strongly disagree about the poor reporting though.
Fact is that Blizzard has pretty significantly stepped up monetization of Hearthstone lately which is arguably already a pretty expensive game when you buy the pre-orders alone every year. This new plan fits the picture and I have trouble believing that the new system, however it will look like in detail, will be an actual improvement for the majority of players. The outlined points indicate the general direction they want to go and this will certainly not benefit the majority of players (especially F2P and casual players).
Definitely not a fan of the Battle Pass but I have not the slightest doubt that this will be implemented (regardless of survey results). HS is already a very expensive game if you buy all pre-orders (equivalent of several AA games per year) but that is obviously not enough. Blizzard has significantly stepped up monetarization lately beginning with the Tavern Pass, which is essential if you want to play Battlegrounds semi competitive, new pack types and bundles and bringing old cardbacks back to the shop. The increasing powercreep from expansion to expansion is also part of this. From their perspective it is the logical next step. From a player perspective of course this is a very unfortunate development especially as the rewards seem lackluster. F2P players might be slowly pushed out of the game (standard at least).
P.S. We obviously do not know the price yet but we all know Blizzard and this will not be cheap.
Well deserved, also Cauldron Familiar is a pleasant surprise. This should stop the Rakdos sac nonsense with cat and oven from taking over the meta after ramp takes a big hit. Can't wait to see it going.
Fire Fly was really good because you could play it one turn one. You can't play this on turn one. The best scenario for this is to play it on turn two on a one drop. That would be 3/3 in stats for two mana if you play the cub immediatly. That's good but probably not Fire Fly level good. I could be wrong however, one should never underestimate a decent one mana spell.
Seems like a fair card to me, obvious inclusion for Token Druid. Comparion is Fire Fly, which was really good. I consider Fire Fly stronger though, as you could play it on turn one which is a huge deal especially for aggro decks. Good card, but won't see widespread play probably.
If this would feature a targeted effect like [Hearthstone Card (Kabal Shadow Priest) Not Found] it might see some amount of play. In its current form this card is interesting but too unreliable.
Underwhelming on its own, with a really niche application area. You need to combine this with mana cheating and a lot of small spells to make it viable. Outside of Cyclone Mage this will likely not be playable. Had much higher hopes for Mage.
Looks really strong to me. I would compare this to Deathspeaker, same stats and cost but the effect is permanent and hits all characters. Basically this allows you to trade for free. If your opponent cannot remove this quickly its pretty much game over.
Daily deals would require us to get into the game in the first place, which many players cannot at the moment due to the return of the black screen. They pretty much fucked up the update (again). Not that I am surprised, this was totally expectable. I really like the game but it is managed rather poorly in my opinion, especially in comparison to HS or LoR.
Well, you have this discussion with pretty much every card game. In Magic you could fill entire books with people suspecting rigged matchmaking (not that there has ever been the slightest shred of credible proof, on the contrary).
I just want to throw in two points:
Nice work, I appreciate it. Thanks for sharing. Although I must confess I found the previous iterations more on spot. I think there are quite a few dubious decisions here. Theremon already underlined many of the problems. Just want to point out Battle Felguard, which is a blatant powercreep on Leroy (at least you could only run one copy of Leroy). Leroy was HoFed for a reason.
Some other thoughts:
Well the reason is Blizzard making more money, apart from that with EUR this has always been the case. Because in Blizz-Land USD = EUR, meaning a player from (mainland) Europe usually pays a ~15% premium compared to a US player. For some currencies it might even be worse, I don't know. Has annoyed me for a time and kept me from a couple of purchases.
Thanks for the latest issue, I appreciate it. I think I'm in a kind of love-hate relationship with Thassa, she can be pretty cool but also really annoying. Quite a few of the presented cards will rotate out of standard soon though as you said. Here a couple of other non-rotating considerations:
That said the mono-blue version could use a late game win condition other than Oracle, currently I'm seeing Thassa almost exclusively in Azorius to abuse Yorion. But we'll see what the next set brings. :)
I cannot give you a real answer to this as I don't know how the program exactly resolves the discovery choices (and to my knowledge Blizzard has never said how they are doing it exactly). I would like to point out a couple of issues though:
But hey I'm not a statistics expert, so feel free to proof me wrong. Besides even an expert (outside Blizzard) might not be able to answer this properly without the knowledge how this is exactly resolved by the program. I guess there are multiple options.
It's really imbalanced right now. Mage and Priest are by far the best classes, other classes such as Warrior and Shaman are in the dumpster. I had several rather high-win runs and it was more or less the same: Get a good class and take every card generation offered. If you manage to get a fair amount of card generation and a somewhat decent curve that is easily a potential high win deck. In the higher win area, lets say 7+ wins, I mostly encountered value decks and occasionally some tempo decks. Often games just felt like it came down to who had more luck with card generation.
I got Forest Warden Omu and Professor Slate from Scholomance. From the packs I got a golden Archspore Msshi'fn and Kargath Bladefist. From the same pack. Guess thats ok. :)
I don't know when I encountered the last Res Priest. They are pretty rare, so no problem here. Although I fully understand that this archetype can be very frustrating. The underlying problem with Res in HS is that it was implemented rather poorly. In MTGA you have a refined graveyard mechanic with a lot of tools and interaction possibilities. In HS well you have nothing apart from a couple of cards with Res printed on it. My opinion is that printing res cards without even a crude graveyard mechanic was a mistake. I just hope that they will not print further Res cards without implementing some sort of basic graveyard mechanic (which they will probably not do due to complexity).
Looks interesting, but as a relatively new player I rather concentrate my resources on standard.
Dropped Raza on Turn 5, my opponent conceded after I hit the hero power button like 8-10 times. Almost felt bad. Obviously the team put absolutely no effort into this.
I agree with you that we don't know the details on the new system and that we cannot properly judge until we know this details. I strongly disagree about the poor reporting though.
Fact is that Blizzard has pretty significantly stepped up monetization of Hearthstone lately which is arguably already a pretty expensive game when you buy the pre-orders alone every year. This new plan fits the picture and I have trouble believing that the new system, however it will look like in detail, will be an actual improvement for the majority of players. The outlined points indicate the general direction they want to go and this will certainly not benefit the majority of players (especially F2P and casual players).
Definitely not a fan of the Battle Pass but I have not the slightest doubt that this will be implemented (regardless of survey results). HS is already a very expensive game if you buy all pre-orders (equivalent of several AA games per year) but that is obviously not enough. Blizzard has significantly stepped up monetarization lately beginning with the Tavern Pass, which is essential if you want to play Battlegrounds semi competitive, new pack types and bundles and bringing old cardbacks back to the shop. The increasing powercreep from expansion to expansion is also part of this. From their perspective it is the logical next step. From a player perspective of course this is a very unfortunate development especially as the rewards seem lackluster. F2P players might be slowly pushed out of the game (standard at least).
P.S. We obviously do not know the price yet but we all know Blizzard and this will not be cheap.
I already received the WCs so yes
Well deserved, also Cauldron Familiar is a pleasant surprise. This should stop the Rakdos sac nonsense with cat and oven from taking over the meta after ramp takes a big hit. Can't wait to see it going.
Fire Fly was really good because you could play it one turn one. You can't play this on turn one. The best scenario for this is to play it on turn two on a one drop. That would be 3/3 in stats for two mana if you play the cub immediatly. That's good but probably not Fire Fly level good. I could be wrong however, one should never underestimate a decent one mana spell.
Seems like a fair card to me, obvious inclusion for Token Druid. Comparion is Fire Fly, which was really good. I consider Fire Fly stronger though, as you could play it on turn one which is a huge deal especially for aggro decks. Good card, but won't see widespread play probably.
If this would feature a targeted effect like [Hearthstone Card (Kabal Shadow Priest) Not Found] it might see some amount of play. In its current form this card is interesting but too unreliable.
Underwhelming on its own, with a really niche application area. You need to combine this with mana cheating and a lot of small spells to make it viable. Outside of Cyclone Mage this will likely not be playable. Had much higher hopes for Mage.
Looks really strong to me. I would compare this to Deathspeaker, same stats and cost but the effect is permanent and hits all characters. Basically this allows you to trade for free. If your opponent cannot remove this quickly its pretty much game over.