Hearthstone 23: The Evil League of EVIL

[otakuryoga]

i got to Khadgar
had some bad rng and some good
playing priest
elixer'd taggawagg(battlecry: flamestrike..deathrattle reshuffle him) giving him return to hand
but when he died next card i drew(overdraw) was him 8(

used the potion to take control of one of his elementals and cast/cast flyby discovered one earlier so that made 3 in 20 cards with him at 98

i was at 37..with any damage spell he had lethal unless i got taunts(i had quest girl in hand at the time) but i had a lot of dead taunts so i went for mass rez
i whiffed....
18 cards in deck..he gets an elemental and casts draw 2..he drew one kadoom bot
i died

[Rynjin]

Lost my first attempt to beat the final wing on Normal mode. Not to any level of difficulty, but to RNG. I met Haro, who cast Free From Amber to get Catrina. She then proceeded to resurrect about a million Convincing Infiltrators and Deathlords. I wasn't TOO concerned, because I had both double health and the "2 armor when a minion dies" perk along with a Recruit Paladin deck, so I was virtually immortal.

Around about 40 HP and 10 cards left, I finally bust through the wall of taunts to take down Catrina and a Tyrantus he had managed to get off a random 10-drop from that Forbidden spell Priest has. Easy, right?

Noooope. He casts Resurrect, and gets Catrina. Who resurrects Tyrantus. With 30+ minions in the Rez pool.

I need to go punch something for a while.

Pfft. That's nowhere near the RNG I had to experience in Ranked last night.

Playing Pogo Rogue, manhandling this Burgle Rogue guy. He plays Jepetto Joybuzz and draws 3 cards, I drop about 50/50 worth of stats on board.

Card 1: Henchclan Burglar, pulls Blizzard. Freezes my board.

He then develops an Evil Miscreant, easy peasy, not too bad.

Drop a couple more Pogo Hoppers, pass.

He plays Tess, which plays exactly Blizzard and nothing else. He Togwaggle's Schemes 3 copies into his deck. He had 20 cards in his deck at this point, so still no big deal.

Eviscerate his Miscreant and clear most of his board (including the 1/1 Tess).

He top decks Tess. Plays it, locks my board again.

He top decks another Tess next turn.

Then the third.

I don't know exactly how many layers of RNG forced me to lose a match that guy had no other conceivable chance of winning, but it was a lot.

[Geno9999]

So. Fun interaction with the Take a Chance (Bob's Bar exclusive: 1 Coin, Reduce the cost of a random card in your Adventure Deck to (0).) If this lands on an Echo/Repeatable this Turn card, it carries over the cost reduction to their copies.

Karl the Paladin has Sound the Bells in his starter deck and in his Galvadon/Buff paladin buckets.

Spoiler: TW: Intense Ringing

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And here I thought I was super lucky when an earlier Take a Chance landed on Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound.

[Tvtyrant]

So. Fun interaction with the Take a Chance (Bob's Bar exclusive: 1 Coin, Reduce the cost of a random card in your Adventure Deck to (0).) If this lands on an Echo/Repeatable this Turn card, it carries over the cost reduction to their copies.

Karl the Paladin has Sound the Bells in his starter deck and in his Galvadon/Buff paladin buckets.

Spoiler: TW: Intense Ringing

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And here I thought I was super lucky when an earlier Take a Chance landed on Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound.

Wow! That is quite the instant win combo!

[Joran]

So. Fun interaction with the Take a Chance (Bob's Bar exclusive: 1 Coin, Reduce the cost of a random card in your Adventure Deck to (0).) If this lands on an Echo/Repeatable this Turn card, it carries over the cost reduction to their copies.

Karl the Paladin has Sound the Bells in his starter deck and in his Galvadon/Buff paladin buckets.

Spoiler: TW: Intense Ringing

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And here I thought I was super lucky when an earlier Take a Chance landed on Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound.

I thought my turn 1 giant was good...

[The Glyphstone]

So I finally dipped my toes into Heroic mode, and wow it is a brutal wakeup call compared to Normal. Took me multiple tries to get more than one victory, and I still lost to Heroic Nozari.

[Joran]

Finished the Heroic Run. All my heroic wins were with the Mage, Hero Power to reduce cost, and Elemental Deck, simply because I had the most experience with it and didn't feel like unlocking things.

Thanks to a strategy I read on Reddit (not really seeking it out, just reading random threads), here's how I won.

Spoiler: Heroic Dalarnan stage 5

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The last three bosses Vargoth, Kalec, and Khadgar all have decks and hero powers based off of spells, so Golden Candle (the card that turns all cards into legendaries) immediately neuters their hero power and deck consistency.

The first time I made a mistake, because I played the Candle without board control despite having rocket boots (minions have rush), two bomba clears, and at least one Elder with double Battlecry. So Khadgar just dropped minions bigger than me, I bricked on the next couple turns and I died.

The second time, I drafted Robes of Gaudiness (easy win), got the Candle and then both buffed it to a 9/9 and made sure it was in my hand. I finally picked up Cloak of Shadows (give minion perma-stealth). So, I was dropping the Candle on turn 2, usually with a turn 1 minion and then out-tempoing and picking up value trades.

Cruise control the entire way.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

So, including some really lucky wins (like one where I just barely had lethal with a minion stat swap), I'm currently through the first two chapters on Heroic with perfect Priest runs. Wow. I'll probably just stick with Priest at this point.

So um, EVIL Propaganda saved my bacon more than a few times.

[Requizen]

I finished Heroic wing 5, but Robes of Gaudiness feels like cheating, especially when you just get it early and pick every big impactful Legendary afterwards. Oh, turn 3 Dr Boom? Don't mind if I do.

On the other hand, some of the later Heroic bosses seriously feel like cheating as well, so I'm kind of ok with it

[Seerow]

So I finished regular Wing 5, but not heroic. But that got me my last 3 card packs. Also bought the bundle, and did one last arena, I believe I am now officially done opening Rise of Shadows packs.

Because of that, and the nerfs having come and gone, I figure now is as good a time as ever to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time:

Spoiler

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[Rodin]

So I finished regular Wing 5, but not heroic. But that got me my last 3 card packs. Also bought the bundle, and did one last arena, I believe I am now officially done opening Rise of Shadows packs.

Because of that, and the nerfs having come and gone, I figure now is as good a time as ever to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time:

Spoiler

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Dang. I don't think I've ever had close to that amount of dust/cards to be able to craft the full lot. There's just too many crap legendaries and epics for it to be possible.

Still struggling to beat wing 5 on Heroic (without Robes). I've gotten to Khadgar a few times, and even had an insane deck at one point. However, I made the mistake of prioritizing the "shuffle a spell" guy instead of the elemental that copies Khadgars spells, and he proceeded to Molten Reflection a full board of the stupid things and I could never get back on board even with double Captured Flag.

I'll get it sooner or later, but I don't think I'm going to go for "beat it with all classes" like I did for the earlier wings. Of course, a lot of my play time has been sucked away by Slay the Spire releasing on Switch.

[Tvtyrant]

I feel like IE explorer. I am buying each chapter with ladder ground gold, so I just finished chapter 2 and will be done with the whole thing in a few months.

[otakuryoga]

mr chu with the shuffle explosives power is sick with stargazing
even sicker later in game after dropping boom, mad genius
especially if you also started with robes of gaudiness meaning there's no reason you cant hero 2x a turn

[The Glyphstone]

Anyone else seen the same boss twice in a run? I just got Linzi Redgrin back to back as my 1st and 2nd enemies in Chapter 5.

[Thomas Cardew]

Actually yes. For the first time about 2 days ago, I had the undead banker lady twice in a row for the first 2 boss. Two runs I had the potion lady who swaps cards twice in a row.

[Psyren]

I've been having a ton of fun on ladder with my Pogo Rogue deck. I use the magic carpet variant and there are just so many internal synergies - bouncing hoppers, bouncing lackeys, bouncing miscreants for more lackeys, bouncing lab and piper for more hoppers, bouncing lackeys for more unpredictable tricks, and the Shark spirit tying them all together. Best of all, I found a use for that Barista Lynchen I pulled back at the start of the expansion

Your 25+ armor means nothing to me, Control Warrior and Lifegain Paladin!

[Seerow]

Finally beat Heroic Chapter 5. Winning deck had Anomaly (both players start with +2 mana crystals, draw 2 cards at start of game). Got all minions cost 1 less passive, and double battlecry passive. For treasure I picked up The Muscle (4 mana 4/5 battlecry add 3 random cards to your hand, they cost 0). The Innkeeper gave me the option to make The Muscle start in my hand always, and add 3 copies to my deck.

So first turn, have the muscle + 5 cards from my deck. Play Muscle, get 5 random 0 cost cards, play out any minions or spells that summon/buff minions out of those, and just crush the opponent with tempo. If the opponent stabilizes, I have 4 more of them in the deck, not to mention my regular cards (which were a mix of battlecry and big shaman buckets).

[The Glyphstone]

I beat normal Wing 5 with Paladin and the infinite free Bells combo. Was very unsatisfying.

[Requizen]

I beat normal Wing 5 with Paladin and the infinite free Bells combo. Was very unsatisfying.

It was funny exactly once when I pulled it off. Then applying the buff 109 times to make a Silver Hand Recruit one-shot Khadgar was.... not fun.

[Hamste]

Huh, renounce darkness is broken in the brawl. The warlock I played against became a warlock.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Huh, renounce darkness is broken in the brawl. The warlock I played against became a warlock.

I'm assuming they didn't get the cost reduction?

[Geno9999]

I'm assuming they didn't get the cost reduction?

I would assume that it puts in all Wild cards, rather than just from the three sets in the brawl.

[Hamste]

They did get the cost reduction. I don't remember if they played anything outside of that set.

[Geno9999]

Blizzard has announced the replacement Classic cards for what got HoF'd, along with a Developer Insight as to what the Team thinks should be each classes' identity and their strengths and weaknesses.

Also they're Hall of Fame-ing Vanish and Mind Blast.

Spoiler: The Replacements

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Plaguebringer 4 Mana 3/3 Basic Rogue Minion: Battlecry: Give a friendly minion Poisonous.: Reminds me of Plague Scientist from KotFT, but was that ever played? Granted, with Rush minions, lots of Tokens/Lackeys being used in the current Rogue decks, this just might see some play. Losing Vanish though is gonna hurt Pogo Rogue, and that deck already has trouble against non-control decks in the first place.

Radiance 1 Mana Basic Priest Spell: Restore 5 Health to your Hero.: If I wanted cheap healing and an easy Pyromancer/Auctioneer activator, I would just have Regenerate in my deck. Oh wait, even then, no one is playing that. 1 star card. Right now, Mind Blast is being used with Vargoth, and I'm getting the feeling that Blizzard collectively went "oh. right. Priest exists." only after Vargoth got released, and this card is their attempt to fix the issue before the next expansion turns OTK Mindblast Priest to Tier 1.

Siegebreaker7 Mana 5/8 Rare Warlock Demon Minion: Taunt. Your other Demons have +1 Attack.: Looks like Blizzard really wants Imp-Lock to work. However, this seems pretty slow for a Token deck to use; the reason why Forest's Aid worked is that it was a (multi-turn) Board fill, not a board buff with a giant minion attached. I think Zoolock decks will stick to their Magic Carpets and Mechs right now.

Gift of the Wild 8 Mana Common Druid Spell: Give your minions +2/+2 and Taunt.: The reason why Forest's Aid worked is that it was a (multi-turn) Board fill, not a late game buff. This is a pretty hefty punish if your opponent leaves your board alone on turn 8, but on the other hand, you could probably also punish with Soul of the Forest and/or have counter lethal with Power of the Wild, Blessing of the Ancients, and Savage Roar. This card really needs a board fill to combo with, but there's nothing at 2 or less Mana that can be combined with this. The cost really hurts this card, but can you really blame Blizzard when Token Druid IS all what Druid is atm?

Righteousness 5 Mana Rare Paladin Spell: Give your minions Divine Shield.: Can I just say, Thank God Baku isn't still around in Standard? I mean, this is hardly as good as Level Up was in its heyday, but this can still make wide Paladin boards harder to deal with outside of Pyromancer or Twisting Nether.

Brightwing 3 Mana 3/2 Neutral Legendary Dragon Minion: Add a random Legendary Minion to your hand.: Eh, fun effect, but not that competitive. Sees play in casual and friendly duels, and occasionally in Spirit of the Shark Rogue.

High Inquisitor Whitemane 7 Mana 6/8 Neutral Legendary Minion: Battlecry: Summon all friendly minions that have died this turn.: Minions, servants, soldiers of the cold dark Scarlet Crusade! Obey the call of Kel'thuzad Inquisitor Whitemane! Joking aside, this is harder to be as annoying to deal with as KT or Catrina Muerte, since Whitemane is limited to just a battlecry and further limited to minions that have died that turn. Still, pretty powerful effect, will see play.

Barrens Stablehand 7 Mana 4/4 Neutral Epic Minion: Battlecry: Summon a random Beast.: "Hey, what if we made Exotic Mountseller, but made their stats worse, only summons one beast, and it could summon a chicken instead?" "Nice, but only if it summons King Krush if it was played by your opponent." "Perfect!!!"

SI:7 Infiltrator 4 Mana 5/4 Neutral Rare Minion: Battlecry: Destroy a random Secret.: Decent tech card, pretty good statline when you're fighting anyone that doesn't have secrets. Will see play, but only as a one-of, maybe more if Secret Hunter becomes a powerhouse again.

Arcane Devourer 8 Mana 5/5 Neutral Rare Elemental Minion: Whenever you cast a spell, gain +2/+2.: Listen, Blizzard, the only growing giant high-cost card that works is the golden god Gruul. And that's because he's Gruul, fuul. This card will not see play.

[Requizen]

Blizzard has announced the replacement Classic cards for what got HoF'd, along with a Developer Insight as to what the Team thinks should be each classes' identity and their strengths and weaknesses.

Also they're Hall of Fame-ing Vanish and Mind Blast.

Spoiler: The Replacements

Show

Plaguebringer 4 Mana 3/3 Basic Rogue Minion: Battlecry: Give a friendly minion Poisonous.: Reminds me of Plague Scientist from KotFT, but was that ever played? Granted, with Rush minions, lots of Tokens/Lackeys being used in the current Rogue decks, this just might see some play. Losing Vanish though is gonna hurt Pogo Rogue, and that deck already has trouble against non-control decks in the first place.

Radiance 1 Mana Basic Priest Spell: Restore 5 Health to your Hero.: If I wanted cheap healing and an easy Pyromancer/Auctioneer activator, I would just have Regenerate in my deck. Oh wait, even then, no one is playing that. 1 star card. Right now, Mind Blast is being used with Vargoth, and I'm getting the feeling that Blizzard collectively went "oh. right. Priest exists." only after Vargoth got released, and this card is their attempt to fix the issue before the next expansion turns OTK Mindblast Priest to Tier 1.

Siegebreaker7 Mana 5/8 Rare Warlock Demon Minion: Taunt. Your other Demons have +1 Attack.: Looks like Blizzard really wants Imp-Lock to work. However, this seems pretty slow for a Token deck to use; the reason why Forest's Aid worked is that it was a (multi-turn) Board fill, not a board buff with a giant minion attached. I think Zoolock decks will stick to their Magic Carpets and Mechs right now.

Gift of the Wild 8 Mana Common Druid Spell: Give your minions +2/+2 and Taunt.: The reason why Forest's Aid worked is that it was a (multi-turn) Board fill, not a late game buff. This is a pretty hefty punish if your opponent leaves your board alone on turn 8, but on the other hand, you could probably also punish with Soul of the Forest and/or have counter lethal with Power of the Wild, Blessing of the Ancients, and Savage Roar. This card really needs a board fill to combo with, but there's nothing at 2 or less Mana that can be combined with this. The cost really hurts this card, but can you really blame Blizzard when Token Druid IS all what Druid is atm?

Righteousness 5 Mana Rare Paladin Spell: Give your minions Divine Shield.: Can I just say, Thank God Baku isn't still around in Standard? I mean, this is hardly as good as Level Up was in its heyday, but this can still make wide Paladin boards harder to deal with outside of Pyromancer or Twisting Nether.

Brightwing 3 Mana 3/2 Neutral Legendary Dragon Minion: Add a random Legendary Minion to your hand.: Eh, fun effect, but not that competitive. Sees play in casual and friendly duels, and occasionally in Spirit of the Shark Rogue.

High Inquisitor Whitemane 7 Mana 6/8 Neutral Legendary Minion: Battlecry: Summon all friendly minions that have died this turn.: Minions, servants, soldiers of the cold dark Scarlet Crusade! Obey the call of Kel'thuzad Inquisitor Whitemane! Joking aside, this is harder to be as annoying to deal with as KT or Catrina Muerte, since Whitemane is limited to just a battlecry and further limited to minions that have died that turn. Still, pretty powerful effect, will see play.

Barrens Stablehand 7 Mana 4/4 Neutral Epic Minion: Battlecry: Summon a random Beast.: "Hey, what if we made Exotic Mountseller, but made their stats worse, only summons one beast, and it could summon a chicken instead?" "Nice, but only if it summons King Krush if it was played by your opponent." "Perfect!!!"

SI:7 Infiltrator 4 Mana 5/4 Neutral Rare Minion: Battlecry: Destroy a random Secret.: Decent tech card, pretty good statline when you're fighting anyone that doesn't have secrets. Will see play, but only as a one-of, maybe more if Secret Hunter becomes a powerhouse again.

Arcane Devourer 8 Mana 5/5 Neutral Rare Elemental Minion: Whenever you cast a spell, gain +2/+2.: Listen, Blizzard, the only growing giant high-cost card that works is the golden god Gruul. And that's because he's Gruul, fuul. This card will not see play.

Revive Priest is already pretty good, finding a place to slot in Whitemane wouldn't even be half bad. Weaker than Catrina in many ways, but more rez effects is by and far not bad.

[Lord Raziere]

okay.

so....take away the rogues like, one board clear it actually has, take away the one direct damage spell a priest actually has to use with combos and actually win, then give us a bunch of.....meh.

yeah this seems par for the course for blizzard. apparently people are having too much unintended fun with their talk of "class identity" and where they are "supposed" to struggle and be strong. ugh. this is basically blizzspeak for "no stop, we want you to play it right, no, we're taking away these so you have fun way we want you to have it."

[Resileaf]

okay.

so....take away the rogues like, one board clear it actually has, take away the one direct damage spell a priest actually has to use with combos and actually win, then give us a bunch of.....meh.

yeah this seems par for the course for blizzard. apparently people are having too much unintended fun with their talk of "class identity" and where they are "supposed" to struggle and be strong. ugh. this is basically blizzspeak for "no stop, we want you to play it right, no, we're taking away these so you have fun way we want you to have it."

Remember that this is the company that literally said "We don't want you to play destruction warlock right now" to WoW players.

[Kish]

Demonology, but otherwise, yes, with the reason given...that it rewarded being able to play in a complex fashion, rather than just memorizing which button to mash, and this obviously needed to be fixed.

[Psyren]

Axing Vanish pretty much killed both my rogue decks. It's saved my bacon quite a bit.

But don't worry, I still have Fan of Knives!!

*cries uncontrollably*

[Rynjin]

Yeah, they've kind of crossed the line with the last couple of "class identity" solidifying rotations.

While it's important for each class to have a core identity (otherwise, why have classes at all?), pigeonholing them SO strictly into a role that you remove the few cards that enable any kind of alternate playstyle and replace them with trash nobody is going to use (Radiance particularly, I could see myself using the Poison guy) is just going to push people away.

I think Blizzard is forgetting that while balance and identity is important, a huge portion of the engagement in a card game comes from deck building, and a large subset of the community exists just to build off the wall, unintuitive decks with the various tools given.