As for riptide, I dont see anything wrong because its coded to trigger each time there's an attack, and mr smite is attacking when overboard triggers.
Riptide seems fine, but is Overboard working correctly? Its trigger is formulated as "after another friendly character is damaged this turn", but should a character be able to take damage when their health is not positive?
Theotar will only be dropped from decks after Sire gets dropped from other decks; I don't know if that will happen but if it does, it will take some time.
For my Token Demon Hunter deck, I dropped Sire because the games often ended before turn 10 and against decks where the games would last 10 turns, half the time he'd be stolen before I could play him. So I'm not defending Theotar, I'm just trying to understand Blizzard's thoughts behind not nerfing him.
The last time one of its key cards was nerfed, questline hunter almost disappeared from Wild. Unfortunately, it returned when new cards became available for it. On the one hand it makes me hopeful that if its win rate dips even slightly from this nerf, players will abandon the deck. On the other hand there is always the risk it might come back as more damage spells are added to the game.
A while back I unpacked a golden copy of the card, that I never played because I despise the archetype. I happily collected 3200 dust tonight.
Starfish countered some decks that didn't see much play, in particular Paladin, as it neutralizes buffs and disables the inherited deathrattle from Stewart the Steward.
Theotar is mostly a counter to Denathrius, which did see a lot of play. With the Kael'thas nerf, fewer decks will be able to infuse Denathrius to lethal levels, so there will be less of a need to play Theotar. My guess is that they expect his play rate to go down in the new meta and therefore decided not to nerf.
I got a win with Warlock on my second try playing Nozdormu early: I did get Pyroblasted in the face, but discovered some good cards, won the board and drew healing so there wasn't enough other damage to kill me off. But I agree that if draw and discover RNG isn't on your side, you don't stand a chance.
I can't remember which expansion it was, but one of these times they had this Brawl the first week and it was perfect :/ There's no excuse for it beyond "we want you to waste dust creating things you might regret".
I think you're overestimating the amount of effort that they're putting into Brawls these days.
It's a pity they don't have a dedicated Brawl developer anymore, because it used to be something to look forward to each week and it led to several innovations as well.
It's at that time that you realize "this card is still in Standard."
Even as a fringe card, it wasn't played for long, as the questline provides a much better incentive for going through your entire deck in record speed.
I tried Steamcleaner, but both the chess cards and the 6 added cards are considered to have started in the deck, so that didn't do anything spectacular. My opponent happened to play Ambassador Faelin though, so it was still useful.
Hearthstone isn't an abstract game where all that matters is the numbers. The developers put a lot of effort in artwork, animations, voice lines and sound effects for a reason. If a card makes a lot of players have a bad experience, then that is a problem, even if balance-wise the card is not an outlier.
Also I don't buy the argument that it's the "bronze" players doing most of the complaining. I think that the most vocal people tend to have a lot of time and thought invested into the game and that typically translates into being well above average in terms of MMR.
What worries me a bit is that most of the dev comments talk about how a card functions in the current Standard meta. Those same cards are playable in Wild, Duels and Arena as well though, so I think balance changes should be more about what the correct power level for a card is and less about the meta.
I understand you can't fully judge a card in a vacuum, but over-focusing on the current Standard meta means you can break balance in other modes and also that you might have to undo nerfs and buffs when new cards enter Standard.
Also there might be fun cards that see no play because their power level is way too low. Those may not get the attention they need if your question is "how do we boost this class?" instead of "why is no-one playing these cards?"
That could be an option if you'd keep both copies of the weapon. However, with one Loot Hoarder, you are still likely to draw all your deathrattles before the second weapon is done and I'm not sure what to take our to fit in two Loot Hoarders. Maybe one of the Crimson Sigil Runners? As there are a lot of combo pieces, you can't always get them in outcast position.
After playing a few games, I found that the second copy of Sigil of Silence wasn't very useful: on the combo turn, you can play only one of them and their most useful property is that they cost 0 mana when top-decked late. Maybe it's useful during the game if you run into a lot of Mine Rogue, but I only played a Thief Rogue and a Pirate Rogue.
The second copy of Tuskpiercer wasn't very useful either, since you typically have already drawn both Mailbox Dancers by the time you have used up both weapons and there are no other Deathrattles in the deck. I considered putting in Persistent Peddler, but as this deck cares more about the stage 1 and 2 discounts of the questline than about actually completing it, I don't think trading Peddler is as useful here as in the typical DH questline deck. Also it would weaken the tutor effect.
I replaced one duplicate with Sigil of Summoning, as the extra minions fuel card draw via Feast of Souls, can slow the opponent or can be playable on the combo turn if discounted to 1 or even 0 mana. The other duplicate I replaced with Eye Beam, as you can easily maneuver that into outcast position on the combo turn and you can use it to reduce the number of S'theno strikes that go into minions. I'm not certain these are the best replacements, but they were more useful than the second copies of the cards they replaced.
Original Hearthstone felt to me like twice as expensive as it should have been. This is more like 20 times.
I don't think there is a way to recover from this. They have clearly decided to balance their economy around the megawhales; even if they make changes, they're not going to slash prices to levels where normal players can participate.
I assume the pieces spawn as soon as the colossal appears on the board, but as long as they spawn before the deathrattle is resolved, it should be fine. It is all just assumptions at this point though.
Most of the cards that would be good with this (Tirion Fordring, Ozumat) don't see much play at the moment and I don't know if this effect would be strong enough to change that.
On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that a mana cheat plus rush-like effect isn't good.
The biggest issue is probably that it requires a meta where you often get to 8 mana and minions on board still matter at that point. Not a problem for Druid, but I'm less certain about the other classes.
The mechanics aren't clear from the wording, but I'm not sure that everything this card does could ever fit in its text. That means the alternative would be to not make this card at all, which would be a shame, because I love the flavor of it.
This is just a card that you'll have to try out to know how it works exactly. I don't think that's a problem, you have to experiment with cards anyway to know if they're good in a particular deck and when the best time is to play them.
Since this is a secret, as an opponent you either already know the card and can play around it, or the card is new to you and the first thing you can react to is the sack on the board, which does explain clearly how it works.
For lore purposes they are Half-Orcs, but for game play purposes at least Rexxar counts as a full Orc.
Maybe one day they'll implement true multi-tribe, so we can have the Lich King as an Undead Human and Hooktusk as a Troll Pirate.
Riptide seems fine, but is Overboard working correctly? Its trigger is formulated as "after another friendly character is damaged this turn", but should a character be able to take damage when their health is not positive?
Theotar will only be dropped from decks after Sire gets dropped from other decks; I don't know if that will happen but if it does, it will take some time.
For my Token Demon Hunter deck, I dropped Sire because the games often ended before turn 10 and against decks where the games would last 10 turns, half the time he'd be stolen before I could play him. So I'm not defending Theotar, I'm just trying to understand Blizzard's thoughts behind not nerfing him.
The last time one of its key cards was nerfed, questline hunter almost disappeared from Wild. Unfortunately, it returned when new cards became available for it. On the one hand it makes me hopeful that if its win rate dips even slightly from this nerf, players will abandon the deck. On the other hand there is always the risk it might come back as more damage spells are added to the game.
A while back I unpacked a golden copy of the card, that I never played because I despise the archetype. I happily collected 3200 dust tonight.
Starfish countered some decks that didn't see much play, in particular Paladin, as it neutralizes buffs and disables the inherited deathrattle from Stewart the Steward.
Theotar is mostly a counter to Denathrius, which did see a lot of play. With the Kael'thas nerf, fewer decks will be able to infuse Denathrius to lethal levels, so there will be less of a need to play Theotar. My guess is that they expect his play rate to go down in the new meta and therefore decided not to nerf.
I've got the "5 wins in Brawl / Arena / Duels" weekly quest, so I think I'll try to get a win with all classes.
In any case, I'm happy to see a new brawl instead of another repeat.
I got a win with Warlock on my second try playing Nozdormu early: I did get Pyroblasted in the face, but discovered some good cards, won the board and drew healing so there wasn't enough other damage to kill me off. But I agree that if draw and discover RNG isn't on your side, you don't stand a chance.
I think you're overestimating the amount of effort that they're putting into Brawls these days.
It's a pity they don't have a dedicated Brawl developer anymore, because it used to be something to look forward to each week and it led to several innovations as well.
It's at that time that you realize "this card is still in Standard."
Even as a fringe card, it wasn't played for long, as the questline provides a much better incentive for going through your entire deck in record speed.
The Deckbuilder should work for this brawl as well, at least it did in the past.
I tried Steamcleaner, but both the chess cards and the 6 added cards are considered to have started in the deck, so that didn't do anything spectacular. My opponent happened to play Ambassador Faelin though, so it was still useful.
Hearthstone isn't an abstract game where all that matters is the numbers. The developers put a lot of effort in artwork, animations, voice lines and sound effects for a reason. If a card makes a lot of players have a bad experience, then that is a problem, even if balance-wise the card is not an outlier.
Also I don't buy the argument that it's the "bronze" players doing most of the complaining. I think that the most vocal people tend to have a lot of time and thought invested into the game and that typically translates into being well above average in terms of MMR.
What worries me a bit is that most of the dev comments talk about how a card functions in the current Standard meta. Those same cards are playable in Wild, Duels and Arena as well though, so I think balance changes should be more about what the correct power level for a card is and less about the meta.
I understand you can't fully judge a card in a vacuum, but over-focusing on the current Standard meta means you can break balance in other modes and also that you might have to undo nerfs and buffs when new cards enter Standard.
Also there might be fun cards that see no play because their power level is way too low. Those may not get the attention they need if your question is "how do we boost this class?" instead of "why is no-one playing these cards?"
Meanwhile, I saw the buff to Stand Against Darkness and thought "I have to try this card in Even Paladin!"
That could be an option if you'd keep both copies of the weapon. However, with one Loot Hoarder, you are still likely to draw all your deathrattles before the second weapon is done and I'm not sure what to take our to fit in two Loot Hoarders. Maybe one of the Crimson Sigil Runners? As there are a lot of combo pieces, you can't always get them in outcast position.
I really like the idea of this deck.
After playing a few games, I found that the second copy of Sigil of Silence wasn't very useful: on the combo turn, you can play only one of them and their most useful property is that they cost 0 mana when top-decked late. Maybe it's useful during the game if you run into a lot of Mine Rogue, but I only played a Thief Rogue and a Pirate Rogue.
The second copy of Tuskpiercer wasn't very useful either, since you typically have already drawn both Mailbox Dancers by the time you have used up both weapons and there are no other Deathrattles in the deck. I considered putting in Persistent Peddler, but as this deck cares more about the stage 1 and 2 discounts of the questline than about actually completing it, I don't think trading Peddler is as useful here as in the typical DH questline deck. Also it would weaken the tutor effect.
I replaced one duplicate with Sigil of Summoning, as the extra minions fuel card draw via Feast of Souls, can slow the opponent or can be playable on the combo turn if discounted to 1 or even 0 mana. The other duplicate I replaced with Eye Beam, as you can easily maneuver that into outcast position on the combo turn and you can use it to reduce the number of S'theno strikes that go into minions. I'm not certain these are the best replacements, but they were more useful than the second copies of the cards they replaced.
Original Hearthstone felt to me like twice as expensive as it should have been. This is more like 20 times.
I don't think there is a way to recover from this. They have clearly decided to balance their economy around the megawhales; even if they make changes, they're not going to slash prices to levels where normal players can participate.
This could have a lot of different applications:
I assume the pieces spawn as soon as the colossal appears on the board, but as long as they spawn before the deathrattle is resolved, it should be fine. It is all just assumptions at this point though.
Most of the cards that would be good with this (Tirion Fordring, Ozumat) don't see much play at the moment and I don't know if this effect would be strong enough to change that.
On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that a mana cheat plus rush-like effect isn't good.
The biggest issue is probably that it requires a meta where you often get to 8 mana and minions on board still matter at that point. Not a problem for Druid, but I'm less certain about the other classes.
The mechanics aren't clear from the wording, but I'm not sure that everything this card does could ever fit in its text. That means the alternative would be to not make this card at all, which would be a shame, because I love the flavor of it.
This is just a card that you'll have to try out to know how it works exactly. I don't think that's a problem, you have to experiment with cards anyway to know if they're good in a particular deck and when the best time is to play them.
Since this is a secret, as an opponent you either already know the card and can play around it, or the card is new to you and the first thing you can react to is the sack on the board, which does explain clearly how it works.