Hearthstone 19: Patches In All The Wrong Places

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Blizzard was willing to write and publish Golakka Crawler, I'd be willing to bet some kind of Jade hoser is out there. Possibly a removal method that deals damage to the enemy hero according to the attack of the minion it destroys. Could see that on a poisonous Minion, actually.

Frankly, I'd call it a coin flip as to whether the devs even recognise Jade as an issue. We might have to wait a while as they put on their lab coats and "see if the meta corrects itself". Especially now that a new set is coming out.

On a related note, I would be curious to see the specific form an anti-Jade card would take.

[Fable Wright]

Frankly, I'd call it a coin flip as to whether the devs even recognise Jade as an issue. We might have to wait a while as they put on their lab coats and "see if the meta corrects itself". Especially now that a new set is coming out.

On a related note, I would be curious to see the specific form an anti-Jade card would take.

I am hoping that Jade lives a while after rotation, at least. I just invested in Aya Blackpaw for Jade Midrange Shaman, and really don't want that dust going to waste.

But I agree that the devs probably don't see Jade as an issue. Highlander deck offer healthy competition for the control slot, midrange decks face competition from dragon priest, and neither are quashing aggro decks. Healthy meta. Plus, control gets powerful Quests in the new expansion, which might be able to compete with Jade in the end. I doubt Blizzard is going to hose Jade without proof that it's a problem in metagame statistics, even if people cry over the swaths of deck design that it cuts off.

[Grytorm]

Personally the only Jade card I don't really like is Jade Idol just because of the whole lategame thing. Other than that I really enjoy the mechanic.

I wonder if they tested old Small Time Buccaneer against the new crab, mostly to figure out if the nerf was really necessary.

[thirsting]

Personally the only Jade card I don't really like is Jade Idol just because of the whole lategame thing. Other than that I really enjoy the mechanic.

This. Infinity engines are bad. Mana cost increase would help a bit, I think. Make it 3 mana? Or maybe do something to that goddang Gadgedzan Auctioneer.

I want to see one of those happening. Preferably Auctioneer nerf/de-standardization, because it's just not fun looking at your opponent go through 1/4th of their deck in single turn and not being able to do anything about it. Feels like watching someone else playing Solitaire at times.

[Destro_Yersul]

This. Infinity engines are bad. Mana cost increase would help a bit, I think. Make it 3 mana? Or maybe do something to that goddang Gadgedzan Auctioneer.

I want to see one of those happening. Preferably Auctioneer nerf/de-standardization, because it's just not fun looking at your opponent go through 1/4th of their deck in single turn and not being able to do anything about it. Feels like watching someone else playing Solitaire at times.

Remember when Auctioneer used to cost 5?

[thirsting]

Yes, but I never really saw it (or the problem) back then personally. Maybe it wasn't that common at low ranks...? (20-14)

..Huh, that's rare. Just had a C'thun warrior vs C'thun paladin match. C'thun won.

[Gandariel]

Oh hey, this time Priest was the one to get an overpowered 1-drop.

(1/1 for 1, same Deathrattle as shifting shade)

Thought: 100% autoinclude in every deck.

Also a tutor spell (cool!)
(2 mana, discover a copy of a spell in your deck)

This one is harder to judge, but it's probably strong in control, and also in Reno.

And the new paladin legendary looks pretty cool!
(6 mana 3/7, Taunt, Battlecry " set ALL other minion''s Attack and Health to 3")

Mega uldaman, actually looks pretty strong. Solid body, counters a lot of stuff, acts as buff too. Super powerful when you're ahead, still OK when you're behind

[PsyBomb]

Link to the source for new cards?

[Destro_Yersul]

Hearthpwn has them. Here's my thoughts:

Spoiler

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Crystalline Oracle: More good deathrattles for priest. Sadly if you're running the quest you can't play this on 1, but it's sort of a delayed babbling book. I think that it'll get played.
Sunkeeper Tarim: This is a really, really interesting card. It's bad against Shaman, and it's bad against lots of small stuff, but it's pretty decent as a taunt and the effect is sometimes absolutely huge. I think this could be good, provided paladin gets some early game to back it up.
Shadow Visions: Another cool card. Low tempo, but very versatile. It does only find spells left in your deck, so drawing it late is really bad, but I think this is a pretty good card. Will see play, almost certainly.

[Gandariel]

Link to the source for new cards?

Sorry, I'm on mobile and lazy. I found them on Reddit though.

[boomwolf]

Sunkeeper seems to me to be a worse edric the pure, and HE didn't see play.

The elemental, weak. The rouge one is good because pirate tag matters and battlecry is far better for the top deck war. This is a dead card late.

Shadow visions has nice flavor, but for 2 I can't see myself playing it. Not unless I can mange to fudge the dice for some odd combo that uses visions and only 2/3 other spells to assure I can duplicate the thing I want.

[Hamste]

Sunkeeper is actually pretty notable for two reasons, one is it is all minions so your silver hands and other cheap minions get buffed and two it is a 3/7 with taunt that sets all enemy minions to 3/3 resulting in a board state where it can got 2-3 for one relatively easily and he has to be removed before your opponent can trade 1 for 1 into your minions. If paladin gets more one drops a zoo or aggro paladin might form (thanks to divine favor and small time recruits) that uses sunkeeper as the largest card in the deck.

[Destro_Yersul]

Sunkeeper seems to me to be a worse edric the pure, and HE didn't see play.

The elemental, weak. The rouge one is good because pirate tag matters and battlecry is far better for the top deck war. This is a dead card late.

Shadow visions has nice flavor, but for 2 I can't see myself playing it. Not unless I can mange to fudge the dice for some odd combo that uses visions and only 2/3 other spells to assure I can duplicate the thing I want.

Sunkeeper is far better than Eadric, because 6 is less than 7 and taunt, plus he hits health as well. Eadric only hit attack.

The elemental is good because it's a deathrattle, which synergises with the priest quest, and it's kind of 1 mana 1/1 draw a card. While it is dead late, it's still very good early.

Shadow Visions is good because it's paying 2 mana for versatility. Really need shadow word death? Or shadow word pain? Or holy nova? Well, this is all of them. You might not get the one you want, sure, but the odds that you will are good enough to justify it.

[Gandariel]

Also, the 1/1 thing is NOT dead lategame. It's a 1 mana draw a card.
That's much more than you can say for pretty much every other 1-drop in the game.

(And maybe the Tribal tag is relevant, but I don't think it's needed. Card's already strong)

[PsyBomb]

My thoughts:

Spoiler: Sunkeeper Tarim

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6 mana Paladin Legendary. 3/7, set all other minion's attack and health to 3. This one has... possibilities, but I don't think it's good enough to see play. I can see it pairing with Stand Against Darkness and other such. Not optimistic, though, this one is probably dust.

Spoiler: Crystalline Oracle

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1 mana Priest Rare Minion (Elemental). 1/1, Deathrattle like Shifting Shade. This one is undoubtably strong, probably a default inclusion, but it cuts against the normal Priest grain by having only one health. Still solid, and will be critical for the quest.

Spoiler: Shadow Visions

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2 mana Epic Priest Spell. Discover a copy of another spell in your deck. This is likely to see play. Even just being able to generate extras of a couple of critical spells, or fetch things early, will be a big deal.

[boomwolf]

Missed taunt on Sunkeeper, that's a major point for him. So he's probably viable.

Also, the 1/1 thing is NOT dead lategame. It's a 1 mana draw a card.
That's much more than you can say for pretty much every other 1-drop in the game.

(And maybe the Tribal tag is relevant, but I don't think it's needed. Card's already strong)

No, it's not.
The card is drawn only when he dies, so you get the card for next turn at best.
In lategame, especially in topdeck war, that's a rather likely death sentence to draw something that is merely a delayed draw.

[Mando Knight]

Reynad revealed the Warlock Legendary, Clutchmother Zavas.

Spoiler: Mom

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2 mana 2/2 Beast

Whenever you discard this, give it +2/+2 and return it to your hand.

If Lakkari Sacrifice is a deck that is played, Clutchmother will be in the deck. Karazhan-style Disco/Zoo-Lock will also run her both because of her stat growth and because she helps protect your other cards even better than Silverware Golem or Fist of Jaraxxus ever did.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Reynad revealed the Warlock Legendary

Spoiler

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Clutchmother Zavas. 2 mana 2/2 Beast that gains +2/+2 and returns to your hand when you discard it.

Hmm. More Discard synergy. It's discard fuel that keeps coming back, and so you never really "lose" it. Hey I completed my quest but 1/5 my deck is gone and I needed extra draw just to have cards in my hand to discard. With this and Silverware Golems,those problems become slightly better. They're really going all in with Discard it seems.

Doesn't look crazy strong, but the design kind of makes sense for the deck they're going for.

EDIT: Ninja'd

[Fable Wright]

Doesn't look crazy strong, but the design kind of makes sense for the deck they're going for.

Oh yes, it's crazy strong.

Spoiler

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Bear in mind for a moment that oftentimes, you will have no cards in hand playing Discardlock, keeping you from discarding cards. Usually, this is fine because of the high value of your minions, but limits the value you can gain. But in this situation, let's say you have a Malchezaar's Imp in play. You dump your hand until Zavas is all that's left. Then you can, say, Soulfire (discard Zavas, return it, draw from imp) play your draw, Life Tap, play Darkshire Librarian (draw again). You just played 4 high value spells this turn, you have an 8/8 for 2 in hand that's only going to grow bigger, and Lakkari Sacrifice is nearly complete.

Perhaps it's not meta-defining, but it's certainly crazy strong in the right circumstances.

[Grytorm]

Its definitely a really strong synergy card. Maybe with one other synergy card like,

Soul Feast 3 Mana
Warlock Spell
Deal 3 damage to a character, if that character is destroyed by this restore 5 health to your hero. When you discard this card, restore 5 health to your hero.

[Gandariel]

New legendary is pretty good, yup.

The only thing scary about this is the fact that if the class legendary synergises with the class quest my dust bank will be very sad,since basically you'll need a MINIMUM of 3200 dust to play a quest deck.

[moossabi]

New card quad-drop

Spoiler: 7 Mana 4/4

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Stone Sentinel
Epic Shaman Elemental
7 Mana 4/4
Battlecry: If you played an Elemental last turn, summon two 2/3 Elementals with Taunt.

Spoiler: Miracle Elemental Rogue?

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Ozruk
Legendary Neutral Elemental
9 mana 5/5
Battlecry: Gain +5 health for each Elemental you played last turn.

Spoiler: Ozruk Fuel

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Fire Fly
Common Neutral Elemental
1 mana 1/2
Battlecry: Add a 1/2 Elemental to your hand.

Spoiler: Obligatory Mage Elemental Card

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Flame Geyser
Common Mage Spell
2 mana
Deal 2 damage. Add a 1/2 Elemental to your hand.

[Rodin]

Epic fail defined:

Getting super excited over drawing Reno in Arena, playing him on the spot, and then remembering you have an Auchenai in play.

[Fable Wright]

Epic fail defined:

Getting super excited over drawing Reno in Arena, playing him on the spot, and then remembering you have an Auchenai in play.

...Oh. Oh my. It works that way?

I am sorry for your loss.

Also, unrelated: Anyone have any advice/blogs to follow/things to watch to get better at Arena? I'm hovering between 3-5 wins, usually, with my record being 6. I'd... obviously rather like to hit that magical break-even spot at least once, but I can't fathom how people can average that many wins.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

...Oh. Oh my. It works that way?

Yep. It seems Reno is coded to restore 30 life.

[Anarion]

...Oh. Oh my. It works that way?

I am sorry for your loss.

Also, unrelated: Anyone have any advice/blogs to follow/things to watch to get better at Arena? I'm hovering between 3-5 wins, usually, with my record being 6. I'd... obviously rather like to hit that magical break-even spot at least once, but I can't fathom how people can average that many wins.

There's not a magic bullet for getting better at arena, since, if there were, everyone else would get equally better and you wouldn't really see improvement. But here are some things you can do that a lot of people are too lazy to do.

1. Memorize the removal spells for every class. There's not very many, especially now that we're on standard only arena. If you know them really well, you can play around them. The obvious one is not dumping your whole hand of 4 or less hp things into a mage on 7 mana, but you really ought to know all of them for best results.

2. If you get a lead think about what could beat you. Sure, the odds that they have Deathwing are low. But if you're going to win anyway unless they have Deathwing, play around Deathwing. More commonly, think about things like mass removal, Mind control, charge minions, taunt minions, damage spells. Don't go to 7 against a Mage if you can avoid it, don't go to 5 or 6 vs. a shaman etc.

3. Check for lethal when you don't think you should. A good rule of thumb I use is if I have more than 8 power on the board, more than 4 guys out, more than 8 damage in hand, or they're below 15, I check for lethal. There are a lot of kills possible from life in the low 20s if you've got a lead, you can steal games out from under people, especially if you've got reach in hand.

4. Draft a good curve. Half your deck should cost less than 4 mana in the majority of cases. If you're not sure about a pick, take the cheaper card.

[Gandariel]

Also, unrelated: Anyone have any advice/blogs to follow/things to watch to get better at Arena? I'm hovering between 3-5 wins, usually, with my record being 6. I'd... obviously rather like to hit that magical break-even spot at least once, but I can't fathom how people can average that many wins.

Well, in terms of drafting, the most popular site is heartharena.com
Fairly good, gives a lot of info and stuff. Don't use it personally but it looks like a good resource.
On the youtube site, Trump is a very educational streamer

Otherwise, the Playground has hosted an Arena advice thread for a while, until interest eventually dropped, but the posters are all still here, so we're still happy to help.

Post an arena draft, something like:

[...]
3) Angry Chicken / Azure Drake / Defender of Argus I feel like the tempo and potential upside of the Chicken are too good to pass up. The other two have just horrible statlines.
[...]
(no need to comment on every pick)

and we'll be happy to offer our advice

[Fable Wright]

There's not a magic bullet for getting better at arena, since, if there were, everyone else would get equally better and you wouldn't really see improvement. But here are some things you can do that a lot of people are too lazy to do.

*Four great points of advice*

Well, in terms of drafting, the most popular site is heartharena.com
Fairly good, gives a lot of info and stuff. Don't use it personally but it looks like a good resource.
On the youtube site, Trump is a very educational streamer

I use the Heartharena spreadsheets at times when I'm unsure about picks, but what other data do they offer? I will check out Trump when I have more free time; thanks for the recommendation!

Otherwise, the Playground has hosted an Arena advice thread for a while, until interest eventually dropped, but the posters are all still here, so we're still happy to help.

Post an arena draft, something like:

...Okay, there was one draft pick that I'd run across once upon a time that stumps me to this day. What do you pick when your options look like this:

Weasel Tunneler/Hungry Crab/Renounce Darkness

One guts my deck and gives me who-knows-what in return, and the other two are almost worthless and have very minimal value capacity for a Warlock. Hungry Crab can at least eat a Puddlestomper in the best case, but... that's a very niche scenario, really.

[Anarion]

Weasel Tunneler/Hungry Crab/Renounce Darkness

One guts my deck and gives me who-knows-what in return, and the other two are almost worthless and have very minimal value capacity for a Warlock. Hungry Crab can at least eat a Puddlestomper in the best case, but... that's a very niche scenario, really.

I'd probably have gone with the Renounce there. It's not amazing, but you can play it in a bad spot in the hope of getting cheap removal from some other class, and at the very least you get an extra random hero power use (of which 3 can gain you life, and several offer extra damage that turn). Crab isn't that bad though, sometimes it's actually excellent.

[Destro_Yersul]

More new cards:

Spoiler

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Ozruk: 9 mana 5/5 is really bad, so you need to play at least one elemental. With one, this is ancient of war, which at 9 mana is not optimal. With 2 it's bigger than that, so I guess the question is: how reliably can I play 2 elementals on turn 8 with this in hand? I don't know the answer to that, but I suspect it's 'not reliably enough.' Sucks in a topdeck war. Probably ok at best.
Stone Sentinel: Well, fire elemental exists, but when's the last time we saw it? If you get the activation, though, this is a 4 mana 4/4 stapled to Feral Spirit with no overload. That's pretty good. Will see play in some sort of midrange, I expect.
Flame Geyser: 2 mana 2 damage, add a 1 mana 1/2 to your hand. This seems pretty weak, even though the token is an elemental. It's an ok pick in arena, but otherwise pretty bad.
Clutchmother Zavas: Ok, this is some nice discard synergy. If Discolock works, this will be a staple. If not, we'll never ever see it.
Fire Fly: Makes Ozruk Great? Well, probably not, because it means you need to play a 1 mana 1/2 in your deck. Card is awful.