Hearthstone 22: Evening the Odds

[Spore]

I'm not sure a 2/6 Taunt for 4 is as 'good' as they describe it without the Omega trigger.

It's odd that they write "Omega" to mark druid class cards nowadays instead of giving them the brown border.

No seriously it is not extremely good but depending on if Omega is triggered by playing or summoning, it is a great addition to both normal druid and taunt druid.

Tribes skewing more towards some classes than others is nothing new. Beasts are more prevalent in Hunter and Druid, Pirates were more prevalent in Warrior and Rogue, Elementals in Mage/Shaman/Priest , Demons in Warlock etc.

Question is, which class will Mechs skew towards if they do at all. I hope they don't do the same what GvG did and give every class a mech that ranges from OP (shielded mini-bot) to unplayable (Metaltooth Leaper, Iron Sensei).

[Psyren]

I'm not sure a 2/6 Taunt for 4 is as 'good' as they describe it without the Omega trigger.

Well, it's a Stegodon+. Not great, but not bad either. Taunt Warrior would probably want it the most - it's reasonable while you're completing the quest and very good late-game as a 4-mana 12/6 taunt.

[Rynjin]

Well, it's a Stegodon+. Not great, but not bad either. Taunt Warrior would probably want it the most - it's reasonable while you're completing the quest and very good late-game as a 4-mana 12/6 taunt.

Not particularly relevant since Taunt Warrior cycles as soon as this comes out though.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

No seriously it is not extremely good but depending on if Omega is triggered by playing or summoning, it is a great addition to both normal druid and taunt druid.

It's not a unique mechanic, just a new archetype for battlecries and maybe/probably spell effects. It's similar to card cycles in Magic.

For this minion, it's a battlecry effect, so, summon won't trigger it. It can also be silenced away.

[gomipile]

Not particularly relevant since Taunt Warrior cycles as soon as this comes out though.

O.o What to you mean? Nothing cycles out again until the first expansion of 2019

[Rynjin]

O.o What to you mean? Nothing cycles out again until the first expansion of 2019

I thought a set cycled after every expansion?

[ChaosOS]

No, sets only cycle with the April expansion and the big "Year of..." transition. Creates more of a rhythm to the year.

[Psyren]

Not particularly relevant since Taunt Warrior cycles as soon as this comes out though.

Really? I thought we wouldn't lose Un'goro until next year

EDIT:

No, sets only cycle with the April expansion and the big "Year of..." transition. Creates more of a rhythm to the year.

Oh good

[Rynjin]

I agree; I was actually very sad about Un'Goro potentially cycling because a lot of good/fun cards are from there.

Maybe I will craft a second Vinecleaver after all.

[Zevox]

So, Magnetic is functionally a buff spell, but you can drop it as a minion. It can't be counterspelled, though I wonder if it triggers Explosive Runes. Because HS is weird. The tribal requirement is pretty restrictive for some classes, but maybe the cards are just good enough on their own. Spider Bomb is probably playable, it's Deadly Shot with a 2/2 body, though not immediate.

I'm not immediately impressed by Project cards. Every example of a similar mechanic we've seen so far has been mediocre, except for Coldlight being used for mill and aggro.

Omega is an interesting way to seal off long games, working a little like Kicker cards in Magic. Great for topdecking, dominant in Arena.

Shaman legendary seems super powerful. Imagine a doubled Far Sight, Healing Rain, Ancestral Spirit, or Spellstone. In a pinch, you can eat a ton of overload for a huge single target removal. Probably the new Kazakus for Overload Shaman.

Yeah, I agree with this in general. Magnetic as a keyword seems viable as long as we get enough mechs, particularly if the minions with it are costed as fairly as Spider Bomb. Projects, by contrast, unlikely. Effects that benefit both players have historically not been very good, except for card draw in mill decks or decks that benefited so heavily from draw that Coldlight Oracle was worth it just because 3 mana draw 2 was a big deal to them. Ramp for both players by contrast seems like a bad idea, since the whole reason ramp is powerful is because you get to play very potent cards before your opponent has the mana to answer them. I dunno, maybe some other Project will have an effect that seems like a better idea, but I think it would need to be something that awfully specifically works great for your deck but isn't too likely to bite you back that badly.

Omega is a mechanic that I like at first glance, since it seems tailor-made for big-value control decks. Not super sure about the Omega Defender, since 2/6 taunt for 4 is mediocre at best (see Stegadon, which isn't even all that desirable in arena), but with a benefit as huge as that in the late-game, maybe even it will be good.

Electra Stormsurge seems very potent - cheap minion with fair stats that doubles a spell is serious value, and potentially a big combo piece. Myra's Unstable Element, by contrast, not so much. The only kind of deck that would want that is clearly a combo deck, but you can't actually play it until there's few enough cards left in your deck that you can hold them all, or you'll just burn your combo pieces. That doesn't seem good at all.

All in all, I'm personally kind of eh on things for now, but the omega cards in particular have my attention at least.

[tonberrian]

Mira's Unstable Element and Curio Collector would be a great combo if they were available in the same deck.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

well, you can't say the beast tag doesn't equal "Battlecry: if you have 10 mana, this gets 10 attack"

I like the magnetic stuff. Spider Bomb looks really good in deathrattle hunter since it's both +2/+2 which is generally worth about 1.5 and then "destroy a random enemy minion" is deadly shot so that's 4.5 mana's worth of stuff in a 3 mana card, and 3 mana out of that 4.5 can be triplicated with play dead for 8.5 mana of value, killing 2 enemy minions and sticking a decent minion. On top of that, you can also just play Spider Bomb as a 2/2 with the same effect. 4/5

The shaman legendary looks absolutely bonkers. A 24 heal with Healing Rain, a 27-30 damage clear with Volcano, and lethal with 5 0 attack minions from the turn before with Bloodlust. The best thing about it is that for Bloodlust and Healing Rain it also puts down a 3/3, which is about 2.5-3 mana. You get 9 mana of value out of healing rain and 13 mana of value out of Bloodlust. Hmmm... If you equipped Stormforged Axe, then on a later turn played Southsea Deckhand, Windfury, Electra, Rockbiter, Rockbiter, it's a 24 damage combo. The best thing about it is that you can play this in Shudderwock with Zola and return it a few times for a later overpowered spell. If they release some powerful 1 mana overload shaman clears, that's something you can play after your shudderwock. 5/5

Everything else so far is just meh.

[Resileaf]

How has no one commented yet on Mecha-Jaraxxus?!

[Psyren]

I agree; I was actually very sad about Un'Goro potentially cycling because a lot of good/fun cards are from there.

Maybe I will craft a second Vinecleaver after all.

I just want to try Quest Rogue. Even post-nerfs it looks so much fun.

[tonberrian]

I'm forseeing the same problems, but worse, with Magnetic as with DK Rexxar. Unless they do some new coding, you're going to run out of text space on your mega mech with a bunch of magnetic creatures stuck together.

[Joran]

How has no one commented yet on Mecha-Jaraxxus?!

I have Nemsy (I drove 45 minutes each way to grab Nemsy and I'm never giving her up) and it's gated behind a $80 pre-order.

Entrance looks badass but the voice lines seem to be mostly recycled without the whole "YOU FACE JARAXXUS EREDAR LORD OF THE BURNING LEGION" greetings, which was the best part... oh and the INFERNO! as his hero power.

Edit: Although the Oops " Error! Error!" is great.

[Zevox]

How has no one commented yet on Mecha-Jaraxxus?!

I would presume because it wasn't in the reveal trailer. What is it?

[Seerow]

I would presume because it wasn't in the reveal trailer. What is it?

The only thing we know is that he exists and you get him for preordering the Mega Bundle.

[Zevox]

The only thing we know is that he exists and you get him for preordering the Mega Bundle.

Oh. Well, doesn't matter to me then, no way you're ever getting me to spend as much money as those crazy pre-order bundles want you to.

[Seerow]

Oh. Well, doesn't matter to me then, no way you're ever getting me to spend as much money as those crazy pre-order bundles want you to.

On that note, I just found out you can preorder both bundles if desired. 130 dollars for 130 packs plus 2 golden legendaries, a regular legendary, and 2-3 card backs is actually a pretty solid deal. Getting a similar number of packs in past expansions would typically cost 20 bucks more, and no bonus legendaries for the preorder.

My main concern is that they cut the free legendary given to everyone that has become the norm with them putting bonus legendaries on the preorder. But as long as they still give everyone a bonus legendary, this new bundle seems all good to me.

[Rynjin]

Oh. Well, doesn't matter to me then, no way you're ever getting me to spend as much money as those crazy pre-order bundles want you to.

They're the only bundles I really buy. It's basically a 50% discount on packs and lets you start playing the new decks right off the bat. With a Golden Legendary in the mix, you're also guaranteed a usable legendary (either by it being good or giving you enough free dust for a Legendary of your choice).

For a game I play daily now, the price of a new game every 4-5 months or so is actually pretty fair.

Buying packs OUTSIDE of deals like this is a big scam, but the lump sum with the good bulk discount is good.

[Destro_Yersul]

Yeah, I usually go ahead and drop the cash for the pre-order deal. It's roughly equivalent to buying any other full-price game, and I get enough time out of Hearthstone to justify that.

[Zevox]

Yeah, I usually go ahead and drop the cash for the pre-order deal. It's roughly equivalent to buying any other full-price game, and I get enough time out of Hearthstone to justify that.

I sure don't. Been a very long time since the amount of time I spent on Hearthstone was comparable to what I spend on a new game.

My pattern for years now has been spending $20 every second expansion (was buying the adventures and not spending on expansions until they stopped doing adventures) - and I actually broke that pattern with Kobolds & Catacombs and skipped spending there, since there was little in the set that piqued my interest. This time around is one of my "just save gold" expansions. Though honestly, I might not have much saved when the time comes, as I didn't play that much the past month or so. BlazBlue and God of War stole my attention - and BlazBlue still has it, to a greater extent than Hearthstone at least.

[Spore]

I wanted to cut down on dropping so much money on HS (so I can spend it on Magic!) but HS doesn't make it easy on me since I am still moping that I couldn't get Khadgar. But Mecha Jarraxus looks decidedly boring. It's just the demon as a permanent hero. No interesting voice clips, not even really that impressive a change from the standard hero. It's all angry power hungry demon lord. At least Nemsy has fun doing what she does.

Thematically I'd had expected a Fel Reaver hero, and for 80 bucks I expect at least two heroes (since it still costs 80 Euros making EU decks about 15% more expensive). Maybe Dr Boom himself, or at least some of the Exarchs/Draenai (Paladin heroes) fighting him. Though that spot is probably held open for Yrel. An Ethereal Mage/Priest/Warlock would've been fun too.

[Psyren]

I tend to be most motivated to buy packs when they dip below $1 each. I spent quite a bit on the Get In Here bundle for instance (80 cents per pack.) I do wish I had grabbed the Witchwood pre-order bonus (~72c per pack.)

I was also missing a lot of Classic rares and epics at the time (e.g. I only had one Doomsayer!) before that bundle came out.

[Kish]

If they actually released a non-joke* card that you have to spent real money to get, I will be irritated.

*The gnome king is a joke card. If "Mecha-Jaraxxus" is a similar level of This Will See A Serious Deck When The Twisting Nether Freezes Over, I won't be irritated.

[The Glyphstone]

If they actually released a non-joke* card that you have to spent real money to get, I will be irritated.

*The gnome king is a joke card. If "Mecha-Jaraxxus" is a similar level of This Will See A Serious Deck When The Twisting Nether Freezes Over, I won't be irritated.

From what I can tell, Mecha-Jaraxxus isn't a minion, it's a variant hero like Nemsy, Maiev, Arthas, Muradin, etc.

[Psyren]

MJ is indeed a Warlock Hero as stated on the preorder page.

[otakuryoga]

the only way i see that legendary rog spell being useful is if there is a card in the set that casts all spells you draw with random targets..and even that would be a hail mary move
but lots of people played with Yogg for hail mary sooooo..

[Mikemical]

the only way i see that legendary rog spell being useful is if there is a card in the set that casts all spells you draw with random targets..and even that would be a hail mary move
but lots of people played with Yogg for hail mary sooooo..

Consider the following: you've filled your deck with Fel'Dorai Strider's spiders, and both you and your opponent have no board. You get 6+ 4/4 spiders + any other card that isn't an ambush into your hand. If you vanished the turn before, you can fill your deck again with 4/4s if the first wave gets wiped. I'm not saying it's a guaranteed win condition, just theorycrafting about the uses of the spell.