Hearthstone 23: The Evil League of EVIL

[heronbpv]

Saw this while watching Amaz. So good, I had to share!

Spoiler: The Power of Khadgar

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https://clips.twitch.tv/BoredPluckySharkTBCheesePull

[Stevesciguy]

Welp, that's enough Hearthstone for today. Lose an arena game because all of my removal and board clears are in the bottom 12 cards of my deck, and if that wasn't enough, Hearthstone DCed right as I queued into my next match and couldn't reconnect me, ending my run at 2-3. Really nice.

[Stevesciguy]

Sorry for the double post, but four new cards released. These ones are quite a doozy:

Spoiler: Caaaards

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Amber Watcher:
Common Paladin Dragon
5/4/6
Battlecry: Restore 8 health.

Necrium Apothecary:
Rogue Epic Minion
4/2/5
Combo: Draw a Deathrattle minion from your deck and gain its Deathrattle.

Nether Breath:
Rare Warlock Spell
2 Mana
Deal 2 damage. If you're holding a Dragon, Lifesteal 4 damage.

Deranged Netherwing:
Rare Warlock Dragon
5/5/5
Battlecry: If you're holding a Dragon, deal 3 damage to all other characters.

Edit: Even more cards:

Spoiler: Cards 2, Electric Boogaloo

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Kronx Dragonhoof:
Legendary Neutral Minion
6/6/6
Battlecry: Draw Galakrond. If you're already Galakrond, unleash a Devastation*.

Veranus:
Legendary Hunter Dragon
6/7/6
Battlecry: Change the Health of all enemy minions to 1.

Hot Air Ballon:
Common Neutral Mech
1/1/2
At the start of your turn, gain +1 Health.

Camouflaged Dirigible:
Common Neutral Mech
6/6/6
Battlecry: Give your other Mechs Stealth until your next turn.

*Devastations are various effects that come up in a Discover interface, like Kalimos did. They are:
-Summon an 8/8 taunt.
-Deal 5 damage to all minions.
-Give your minions +2/+2.
-Deal 5 damage to the enemy hero, heal your hero for 5.

[Resileaf]

Dragon warlock archetype, eh? Let's see how this evolves then.

[Geno9999]

Sorry for the double post, but four new cards released. These ones are quite a doozy:

Spoiler: Caaaards

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Amber Watcher:
Common Paladin Dragon
5/4/6
Battlecry: Restore 8 health.

Necrium Apothecary:
Rogue Epic Minion
4/2/5
Combo: Draw a Deathrattle minion from your deck and gain its Deathrattle.

Nether Breath:
Rare Warlock Spell
2 Mana
Deal 2 damage. If you're holding a Dragon, Lifesteal 4 damage.

Deranged Netherwing:
Rare Warlock Dragon
5/5/5
Battlecry: If you're holding a Dragon, deal 3 damage to all other characters.

Edit: Even more cards:

Spoiler: Cards 2, Electric Boogaloo

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Kronx Dragonhoof:
Legendary Neutral Minion
6/6/6
Battlecry: Draw Galakrond. If you're already Galakrond, unleash a Devastation*.

Veranus:
Legendary Hunter Dragon
6/7/6
Battlecry: Change the Health of all enemy minions to 1.

Hot Air Ballon:
Common Neutral Mech
1/1/2
At the start of your turn, gain +1 Health.

Camouflaged Dirigible:
Common Neutral Mech
6/6/6
Battlecry: Give your other Mechs Stealth until your next turn.

*Devastations are various effects that come up in a Discover interface, like Kalimos did. They are:
-Summon an 8/8 taunt.
-Deal 5 damage to all minions.
-Give your minions +2/+2.
-Deal 5 damage to the enemy hero, heal your hero for 5.

Spoiler: Card Takes

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Amber Watcher: Well statted minion, good battlecry that can be used in a variety of Decks that isn't pure Aggro, gonna see it everywhere.

Necrium Apocthecary: Well this lives and dies on if Deathrattle Rogue is a thing. And the problem that I have with Deathrattle Rogue, as a whole, is that Rogue doesn't have that many Deathrattles, especially ones that you'd want to exploit. *Remembers Waxadred was revealed*... Huh, now there might A card that could be used. But my main point is that it generally limits Rogue to Neutral Deathrattles, and that basically leaves you with, what, Cairne and Mechanical Whelp? Blizzard, if you want Deathrattle Rogue to be an actual deck, GIVE THEM A FREAKING DEATHRATTLE THAT'S WORTH BUILDING AROUND IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Nether Breath and Deranged Netherwing: I lumped these two together, because let's be honest, if you're putting one in your deck, you're putting the other in. Also, between these two cards, Warlock could get no other Dragons and I will still say we'd see a Dragonlock Deck, because these are some overpowered cards here. Given that this is going to be Dragons; The Expansion, their requirements might as well say "If you're holding a Minion...", and a non-issue. Nether Breath is an Eviscerate that always combos AND has Lifesteal. Netherwing is Duskbreaker's Bigger Brother, and Duskbreaker was already a powerful Tempo swing card!

Kronx Dragonhoof: Wow. Those are quite potent Devastations that I'm not sure if I want to use Kronx as a tutor ever. Maybe only when I've fully Invoked Galakrond but he is in the bottom of my deck and I need that swing turn as soon as I can. 5/5, if you're playing Galakrond, you're playing this guy, and SOMEBODY has to be able to make a Galakrond deck.

Veranus: ...Blizzard? Where's the Hunter Legendary Meme? Because this guy is actually pretty good. This is Equality except effects only enemy minions and is stapled to a body. This is "nice board, would be real shame if Unleash the Hounds happened to it." Hunter's Mark was nerfed TWICE and here's a Legendary that does that to everything, and is well statted to boot!

Hot Air Balloon: Hello this expansion's Dire Mole, glad to see you could make it. Now don't worry if you don't see play in literally every deck, not even the OG Dire Mole did that, but you'll see so many decks that you might as well be.

Camouflaged Dirigible: Overcosted, doesn't see play in Constructed. Not even in Wild, not even in Snip-snaplock. Why? Well I just said, it's overcosted, and if Warlock could play this on a Snip-snap board, it wouldn't actually DO anything because mass removal exists, nor would it help build the Snip-Snaps/Mechwarpers into dummy thicc numbers. Coppertail Imposter does nearly the same thing but cheaper (4 mana vs. 6, but is limited to itself) but there are a big ol' ZERO Snip-Snaplock decks that run this.

[Hamste]

Spoiler: Apothecary

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I see two uses for Necrium Apothecary.

It could be used in a super aggro deck where you run a dead Octosari and use Necrium Apothecary to draw 9 from your deck. If there is another good aggro deathrattle run it as well for consistency. It might be better if it's attack was higher for aggro but still potential.

The other use is in Mecha'thun Rogue which is possible with Ankha but hasn't seen much play as it can't compete with mechathun druid. Worse case you could tutor Mecha'thun or you can put in two loot hoarders making it 4 mana draw 2 cards, spend 2 mana later to draw another card. Being able to get more health would probably be better but drawing fast is nice as well.

The aggro rogue is probably more likely but either way don't count out 4 mana 2/5 draw a card and get a death rattle effect. If rogue is a thing this expansion then this card is probably going to be in it.

[Stevesciguy]

Spoiler: Cards 3, more cards for me

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Sanctuary:
Epic Paladin Sidequest
2 Mana
Sidequest: Take no damage for a turn.
Reward: Summon a 3/6 minion with Taunt.

Zul'drak Ritualist:
Rare Neutral Minion
4/3/9
Taunt, Battlecry: Summon 3 1-cost minions for your opponent.

Flik Skyshiv:
Rogue Legendary Minion
6/4/4
Battlecry: Destroy a minion and all copies of it(wherever they are).

Sooo, RIP mill/pogo Rogue.

On the subject of Camouflaged Dirigible, I don't think it's just the cost that will keep it from being played in Sn1plock. I think even if it was 1 mana, it wouldn't get played there.

One of the reasons Sn1plock is so good is because the combo, unlike most combos, can happen any turn after you hit 5 mana. From that point on, any mech can potentially kill you, once the Warlock draws the cards. When playing against Sn1plock, you essentially have to have a balancing act with your removal. Use your removal too liberally and you run out, and die to a mech you couldn't kill in the late game. Be too greedy with your removal, and you die to a mech you didn't remove because you thought you could get away with it for one turn.

Cards like Coppertail or Dirigible mess with that. They are essentially big neon signs saying "I HAVE THE COMBO, REMOVE ALL MECHS OR KEEP TAUNTS BETWEEN ME AND YOUR FACE FROM NOW ON." Dirigible isn't only unplayable in the deck because of the cost, it messes with one of the deck's major advantages.

Edit: HANDLOCK HAS RETURNED!

Spoiler: Wowee

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Valdris Felgorge:
Legendary Warlock Minion
7/4/4
Battlecry: Increase your maximum hand size to 12. Draw 4 cards.

Abyssal Summoner:
Common Warlock Minion
6/2/2
Battlecry: Summon a Demon with Taunt and stats equal to your hand size.

[Chen]

Envoy of Lazul: Pretty good value card for Priest, reminiscent of the old 3/3. Question is, will a Control/Value Priest deck that wants this be a thing? Without something happening to the current aggro Priest deck, I kind of doubt that, but we'll see what else the archetype gets. The Priest Galakrond fits in it, but also seems sadly like the weakest Galakrond of the three we know of, so still iffy there.

From what I heard the three cards shown are all cards that started in the opponent's deck, so seem much harder to get this card draw, BUT it gives you more information if you succeed or fail.

[Rynjin]

Sooo, RIP mill/pogo Rogue.

And preemptively RIP Waxadred Rogue.

Why is every Rogue deck save for the most aggressively tempo heavy decks always sabotaged in the same expansion they're originally released? This is the most egregious one I've seen.

[Stevesciguy]

And preemptively RIP Waxadred Rogue.

Why is every Rogue deck save for the most aggressively tempo heavy decks always sabotaged in the same expansion they're originally released? This is the most egregious one I've seen.

Ah, but killing Waxadred will shuffle his candle into the deck. Waxadred is still safe, I think

[Hamste]

It's rogue only so it just makes a single match up worse which sucks for that Pogo vs rogue match up but isn't terrible unless rogue makes up a large portion of the meta. It would also have little effect on Waxadred. It can't remove all your Waxadreds (Any killed would make a candle which is unaffected) so as long as you don't make too many all in a single turn you should be ok.

That being said, it is a really good card. Even with out the second copy removal it would be good. The additional ability of being able to destroy a minion in your opponent's deck is really useful though note the way it is written it destroys the minion in your deck as well (So if you hit your opponent's sylvanas it will destroy your own as well.).

[Geno9999]

And preemptively RIP Waxadred Rogue.

Why is every Rogue deck save for the most aggressively tempo heavy decks always sabotaged in the same expansion they're originally released? This is the most egregious one I've seen.

The Waxadreds in play would be fine, they should still shuffle Candles into your deck. Skyshiv would bust Lab Recruiter and Togwaggle's Scheme copies, but not the actual Candles from Waxadred nor would she affect Shadow of Death, since those are separate cards.

Pogo-Rogue on the other hand gets hard countered by Skyshiv since you need to actually play the Pogos, and Shadow of Death would only create useless 1/1s that do nothing for the Pogo's battlecry.

I don't think Skyshiv would be the reason why Waxadred Rogue, I think it would be the fact that Rogue more or less has to be some variation of Tempo Rogue. There's no more Vanish, Fan of Knives is a weak board clear, and Blade Flurry is too expensive, especially without any weapons to pair with it.

[Stevesciguy]

More cards. They're breaking the rules now, Warrior's non-dragon Legendary is a weapon!

Spoiler: Cards 4, I want more

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Chromatic Egg:
Epic Neutral Minion
5/0/3
Battlecry: Secretly Discover a Dragon to hatch into.
Deathrattle: Hatch!

Dragon Breeder:
Rare Neutral Minion
2/2/3
Battlecry: Choose a friendly Dragon. Add a copy of it to your hand.

Warrior Dragon(official name pending):
Epic Warrior Dragon
3/3/2
Rush
Battlecry: If you've Invoked twice, summon two copies of this minion.

Chenvaala:
Legendary Mage Elemental
3/2/5
After you cast three spells in a turn, summon a 5/5 Elemental.

Dragonqueen Alexstrasza:
Legendary Neutral Dragon
9/8/8
Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, add 2 random Dragons to your hand. They cost (0).

Diving Gryphon:
Rare Hunter Beast
3/4/1
Rush
Battlecry: Draw a Rush minion from your deck.

Transmogrifier:
Epic Neutral Minion
2/2/3
Whenever you draw a card, transform it into a random Legendary minion.

Ancharr:
Legendary Warrior Weapon
3/2/3
After you hero attacks, draw a Pirate from your deck.

Breath of the Infinite:
Rare Priest Spell
3 Mana
Deal 2 damage to all minions. If you're holding a Dragon, only damage enemies.

Kobold Stickyfinger:
Epic Neutral Pirate
5/4/4
Battlecry: Steal your opponent's weapon.

Dread Raven:
Epic Neutral Beast
3/3/4
Has +3 attack for each other Dread Raven you control.

[Rynjin]

How is a Legendary Weapon breaking the rules? There were 9 of them in Kobolds and Catacombs.

Speaking of:

Chenvaala:
Legendary Mage Elemental
3/2/5
After you cast three spells in a turn, summon a 5/5 Elemental.

LMAO, Dragon Soul mk. 2, this time it's not dragons in the dragon expansion. And it can be killed on board.

Yeah, yeah, Mage is better at slinging spells than Priest, but still. Dragon Soul Priest was not even CLOSE to being a deck, so I dunno that reprinting an on paper weaker version of what may be the weakest Legendary in the history of the game but just swapping the class is going to make it a deck.

Also my bad about Waxadred...for some reason I misremembered it as his Deathrattle being to shuffle extra Waxadreds into the deck.

[Zevox]

LMAO, Dragon Soul mk. 2, this time it's not dragons in the dragon expansion. And it can be killed on board.

Yeah, yeah, Mage is better at slinging spells than Priest, but still. Dragon Soul Priest was not even CLOSE to being a deck, so I dunno that reprinting an on paper weaker version of what may be the weakest Legendary in the history of the game but just swapping the class is going to make it a deck.

A 3 mana 2/5 minion is at least worlds better than a 3 mana 0/3 weapon. Right off the bat there it's far more viable for Mage to even try using Chenvaala than it ever was for Priest to try using Dragon Soul, because it does a lot more if you don't get the bonus effect off. Might very well still be too weak for standard, sure, but at least it's not a total joke of a card.

[Stevesciguy]

How is a Legendary Weapon breaking the rules? There were 9 of them in Kobolds and Catacombs.

Yes, but every class got a Legendary weapon in KnC. Usually when it's a non-minion Legendary, that's the gimmick for the expansion - Weapons for KnC, quests for Un'Goro/SoU, spells for Boomsday. It's 'breaking the rules' because not every class is getting a Legendary weapon.

[Eurus]

I dunno if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but Diving Gryphon looks good. Especially with Clear the Way.

[Geno9999]

I dunno if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but Diving Gryphon looks good. Especially with Clear the Way.

It looks really good. Why yes I would like Town Crier who is also Shadow Bolt. It won't help pull out Unleash the Beast, but even just pulling out your other Diving Gryphon is good.

The Unnamed Warrior Dragon was going to be Kibler's card, but he didn't have enough time to make a video between the Battlegrounds Event and travel, so it got bumped to December 2nd. Guess not everyone got the memo. So because of that I'm calling the Shiro. And Shiro is looking STRONK. Normally, it's Dragon Tribe Rabid Worgen with -1 Health so meh, but with the Invoke upgrade it's nuts, and if it gets buffed from Galakrond's draw? God-tier.

Chenvaala is nice, though I don't think it'll pull Tempo Mage out of Tier 3.

[Stevesciguy]

More cards revealed overnight

Spoiler: Cards 5... I can't think of a rhyme for this one

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Cumulo-Maximus:
Epic Shaman Elemental
5/5/5
Battlecry: If you have Overloaded Mana Crystals, deal 5 damage.

Warlock Dragon(name not yet translated):
Legendary Warlock Dragon
8/4/12
When your hero takes damage, summon a 6/6 Nether Drake.

Bad Luck Albatross:
Rare Neutral Beast
3/4/3
Deathrattle: Shuffle two 1/1 Albatross into your opponent's deck.

Dragoncaster:
Rare Mage Dragon
6/4/4
Battlecry: If you're holding a Dragon, your next spell this turn costs (0).

Arcane Breath:
Rare Mage Spell
1 Mana
Deal 2 damage to a minion. If you're holding a Dragon, Discover a spell.

Nithogg:
Legendary Shaman Dragon
6/5/5
Battlecry: Summon two 0/3 eggs. Next turn they hatch into 4/4 Drakes with Rush.

Bandersmosh:
Legendary Shaman Minion
5/5/5
Each turn this is in your hand, transform it into a 5/5 copy of a random Legendary Minion.

Bad Luck Albatross... RIP highlander decks, I suppose

Also Dragoncaster. What the hell. Inkmaster Solia is dead

[heronbpv]

@Bad-luck Albatross - Bomb Warrior sends his regards.

I like where this power levels are going. Just hopeful I get to play some proper paladin games.

[Geno9999]

@Bad-luck Albatross - Bomb Warrior sends his regards.

Speaking of, why did Bomb Warrior suddenly die out? Bombs were too inconsistent? Out-controlled by Control Warrior?

As for Albatross itself, yeah, it seems too slow to counter Highlander. That being said, I probably will try putting it in a Midrange or Highlander Hunter deck as tech, but also because disrupting your opponent's draw with a 1/1 or a no effect Highlander at the right time can be game winning. Probably not worth the craft, but worth trying out if you get it in a pack.

[heronbpv]

I believe the later, sadly, as we tend to lose in the mirror. I still play it myself, though; it has been my go to warrior deck ever since it got consistent enough. I don't like not having a proactive plan to win, so in a sense this is my substitute C'Thun Warrior.
I liked the aggro warrior of this expansion (the bloodsworn deck) too, but it's inconsistent, and first Priest then Shaman with Evolve turned to be the better aggro decks.

[Seerow]

I believe the later, sadly, as we tend to lose in the mirror. I still play it myself, though; it has been my go to warrior deck ever since it got consistent enough. I don't like not having a proactive plan to win, so in a sense this is my substitute C'Thun Warrior.
I liked the aggro warrior of this expansion (the bloodsworn deck) too, but it's inconsistent, and first Priest then Shaman with Evolve turned to be the better aggro decks.

Aggro Warrior consistently beats out combo priest. It can get onto board faster and keep the priest from sticking anything. There's the rare perfect draw where priest just auto wins, but on average Warrior should basically always win that matchup.

The problem is Aggro Warrior doesn't do as well against control as Priest/Shaman does. It just doesn't have the explosive burst potential.

[heronbpv]

@Seerow
Then I either only saw the "they snowball early" portion of the statistics, or I'm that bad at Aggro Warrior. Or both! Never really got good at piloting an aggro deck, I think. It either makes me feel like I trade too much, or that I don't do the right trades.
But alas, Battlegrounds! I broke through the 6k threshold somehow, currently sitting at 6199 with 18 first places and 67 top 4's, so how is everyone doing in the game mode?

[Zevox]

But alas, Battlegrounds! I broke through the 6k threshold somehow, currently sitting at 6199 with 18 first places and 67 top 4's, so how is everyone doing in the game mode?

Rank 5926, with 21 first place and 56 top 4s. I've just had a few too many games that didn't quite work out to hit that 6k mark. Kind of irritating when you get games where you're offered a clear direction early, like picking up two Scavenging Hyenas, two Rat Packs, and a Pack Leader, but then suddenly cease to see anything that supports that direction (and of course never find a third of those doubles), and lose because you didn't immediately swap to some other strategy. Or worse, when you actually do get that early Lightfang or Brann, but the early turns went poorly enough for you that you die before they can power you up anyway...

[heronbpv]

Yeah, missing the timing on that Brann/Lightfang power spike usually ends up poorly for me too. What I like to do instead is focusing more on midrange gameplay, targeting incremental buffs/triples, going either hybrid or mech early on, not shying away from minions like Crowd Favorite, Piloted Sky-Golem, Siege Breakers...
Also, beasts early on are pretty swingy. One snipe on that Scavenging Hyena/Packleader usually spells defeat. Same for murlocs if Coldlight Oracles are not offered early on. That's why I simply either focus on buff rotating or Mechs, as these are more reliable IME.

[Zevox]

Honestly, I frequently find that going for Mechs just doesn't work out for me. There's just not enough mech buffs around, and so many others go for them that the pool diminishes very rapidly. Sure, those Cobalt Guardians are great for a while, but if you don't find Screwjank Clunkers and Metaltooth Leapers to buff them up (or, heaven forbid, don't find Replicating Menaces or Security Rovers to spawn stuff so they get those extra Divine Shields), they fall off hard as the late-game approaches.

On another note, thoughts on the current heroes? I feel like there's pretty clear sets of good and bad ones at this point, and it'd be nice to see some buffs thrown at the bad ones.

For instance, Sir Finley is certainly the weakest of the recent additions, but I think he could be made much better and more interesting if his hero power refreshed when you play a minion instead of when you sell one. Derryl already exists to give a cool dynamic when selling a minion, and Finley is basically strictly worse at that than Derryl, but being able to play a few minions and hit Finley's hero power a few times for buffs might help make him decent.

Patches and Ragnaros feel like they need a major overhaul, too. Patches' hero power just sucks outside of the early game (which is when you least want to use hero powers with a gold cost attached anyway), and Ragnaros' falls off after the mid game (which is also a time when you're not thrilled about paying for a hero power, though it's better than in the early game). In the late game they're both best off sniping Divine Shields, which just makes them both much worse versions of Nefarian. I feel like maybe once they introduce Pirates and Elementals to Battlegrounds those two can get hero powers focused on those instead. I mean, I know that dealing 8 to random targets is Rag's thing, but it's just never going to be a good basis for a hero power in this mode I think. Otherwise, maybe make them two of the next heroes to rotate out.

Or there's Professor Putricide, who is probably my pick for worst hero in the game. An attack buff to your left-most minion basically only synergizes with cleave, but by the time you get a cleaver odds are you're running into divine shields that will just nullify the damage of your first attack anyway, rendering your hero power entirely pointless. I'd suggest something secret-related since his card is based on that, but that Goblin hero already has that covered, so I'm not sure what to do with him. Probably just have to dump him in the next rotation.

Others on the "needs buffs" list: Pyramad (suggestion: let him target who he wants to buff), Gallywix.
Maybes for that list: Bartendotron, Queen Wagtoggle, Elise, Toki, Jaraxxus (might just need better demons).

Edit: And got my rank over 6k with a dominant first-place finish as Michigan J. Frog Dancin' Derryl! Now at 6090, with 23 first-place and 59 top 4s.

[Rynjin]

Man, you guys play a LOT of Battlegrounds. I'm sitting at rank 4100 or some such, and I know I have way more wins than losses.

[Zevox]

Man, you guys play a LOT of Battlegrounds. I'm sitting at rank 4100 or some such, and I know I have way more wins than losses.

Um... either you're misremembering your rank, or your'e misremembering your win rate there. You start at rank 4k, and you gain rank rapidly during your first (50, I think it was?) games if you're winning. The only way to be at a rank that low is to do a fair amount of losing, or to have only played like, one, twice tops.

[Rynjin]

Um... either you're misremembering your rank, or your'e misremembering your win rate there. You start at rank 4k, and you gain rank rapidly during your first (50, I think it was?) games if you're winning. The only way to be at a rank that low is to do a fair amount of losing, or to have only played like, one, twice tops.

You start at 3000, I'm pretty sure (or you did during the closed beta). I have 5 wins, 14 top 4s, and about 25 games total played, if even that many. And I've only LOST lost 2 (8th place); one for a DC and one last night where the game just really felt like I should eat ****.