Agreed. Either you need a) far more Totem synergies that will come up reliably such that you don't care if this is the last card in the deck, b) this card needs to have other powers and synergies unrelated to Totems that makes it a strong play when you're not making Totems, or c) preferrably both.
Note that Team 5 seems to hate (c). They are making pre-packaged decks where 25 to 28 of your cards are all of one tribe pre-made by the design team, as if we didn't have enough of their in-house design with Quests. Cards that bridge the gap between tribes are not only rare, they're usually deliberately terrible. It's the exact opposite of what we could use, but it likely makes things easier on their end.
Card games from 20 years back solved this with simple bold text. Hearthstone can throw tribes to hover-text if there's not enough space. Hero cards don't have space for their hero powers so we're already there.
I think without even a totem support it is a good card. 4 mana 5/4 for an ongoing effect that makes you always have a board presence with your hero power is very promising. Even in aggro decks it is not bad at all.
I wish we had sub-tribes as it would add a ton of flavor to the game, but I understand it is better to keep Hearthstone simple at the core. MTG's tribes are exciting to read even though they can be a mouthful at times.
Treants, Whelps, and Imps all definitely deserve something - it's almost as bad as the Alliance and Horde issue with Mercenaries. I wish there was a good spot on the card for an extra icon. The least they could do is put a tooltip over these sub-tribes so when you mouse over them you get to see what they belong to. Maybe something could work with the top right corner of cards. Even ignoring legendary cards, it would be a bit awkward to change the shape of our beloved frame, but the text box could never be used for such an icon as it should be made available for the description. Maybe the text box just needs to kick things off with Imp. Envoy gets a bit more crowded but it would make it clear as day that its a part of the mechanics, much like when we call upon doubling the Battlecry keyword via Brann Bronzebeard. Making subtribes a keyword could also open up a ton of design space. Kitten Beast archetype when?
Though honestly, I think just making Imp the tribe itself and then making it required knowledge that an Imp is always a demon as well would work too. The game has gotten more complicated over the years as the playerbased has matured, I don't see this being a major pain to do.
If they can figure out some type of visual indicator to put onto cards to specify what counts as an Imp, then that would be great. While they're at it, they can do the same thing for things like Treants or Whelps, and that would even open the door to many other different designs that could be utilized for these "tribes" that aren't really tribes.
It was just sort of weird when Whelps did it, but now with Imps and how many cards that count as such aren't specified in name, I can see this becoming a problem in the future.
I dislike using art as a mechanic. I guess it's OK because it's a digital game and HS is already pretty simple, to begin with. Still, I hate the idea of potentially losing because you didn't realize the art on Ring Matron or Tiny Knight of Evil depicted an imp (Though it's obvious the knight is an imp now in retrospect lol).
This is the same as Frizz Kindleroost, but it buffs your totems. The issue with Frizz was that it costed too much and would have a neglible impact on the rest of the game because of how late you would get its effect off. The main difference is that this immediately does something if you have totems out, and in that case its pretty good. It can't ever be good though, because then people would just kill the unbuffed totems. I would call it a good card if she herself were a totem, but she isn't. Also, the lack of decent totem support in standard makes this very underwhelming as well.
Using "cannot attack" minions might be the way to make it work indeed, as without discounted huge minions, it's going to be hard to find a good target for this spell.
I'm pretty sure this card itself is broken, but as it is a one-of and not easy to tutor, the deck could suffer from low consistency. On the other hand, Wig Priest is not terrible right now, so adding one more high-roll to it might just make it good enough.
Other bad archetypes like Pirates and Freeze Shaman eventually became playable because new and much more powerful cards.
A couple initial ideas. I really like the flavor of Bad Romance, but the effect is admittedly on the basic side. Covetous Shade works nicely with all the stat play Priest has been getting recently, like Switcheroo and some of the Castle Nathria stuff. Lots of cool ideas for the comp so far!
I don't think it needs all that much support to be good enough, because of the 3 durability. Coining this out on turn 3 gives you a Spider Tank + a 2/3 weapon, that's pretty decent at that stage of the game. I don't think this is a build-around card, but it is likely a good addition to any low-curve deck.
Even if you can craft a deck that could play 30 cards in one turn, the animation slowness makes it unlikely you'll actually be able to execute it. Spectral Pillager OTKs already require good APM and there you can take advantage of a doubled battlecry, but in this case that will just override the weapon instead of giving you twice the damage.
Yeah, I loved Ey’sor decks. You just had to have good mulligan and early draws to get rolling. The nerf to Bloom actually makes this a lot harder to get double Ey’sor early. But that occasional turn 2 double Bloom into Ey’sor and Totemic Reflections was a hell of a turn! If even one survives until turn four the Splitting Axe got you going again!
Even if the card seems very cool, the main problem about it is that you can't create a deck that relies totally on it. If you can't cast it on turn 4 maybe in the 60+% of the matches it simply lose the most of matches. And again, what does the deck do in the meantime? The past totem shaman have been in a good spot for a brief time thanks to tools like the totemica reflection, as well as the 0cost area buffs and eyes'or. We have to see lots of other cards that could fit there, but I'm not sure that they would be enough to make the deck viable: even the anchored totem is useless in this deck.
The Stonewright is a New Legendary Shaman Card Revealed by PCGamer for Castle Nathria
Agreed. Either you need a) far more Totem synergies that will come up reliably such that you don't care if this is the last card in the deck, b) this card needs to have other powers and synergies unrelated to Totems that makes it a strong play when you're not making Totems, or c) preferrably both.
Note that Team 5 seems to hate (c). They are making pre-packaged decks where 25 to 28 of your cards are all of one tribe pre-made by the design team, as if we didn't have enough of their in-house design with Quests. Cards that bridge the gap between tribes are not only rare, they're usually deliberately terrible. It's the exact opposite of what we could use, but it likely makes things easier on their end.
Leo Robles Gives Us An Imp-ortant Clarification On Imp King Rafaam and Other Imp Synergies
Card games from 20 years back solved this with simple bold text. Hearthstone can throw tribes to hover-text if there's not enough space. Hero cards don't have space for their hero powers so we're already there.
Boon of the Ascended is a New Priest Hearthstone Card Revealed by LookSam for Castle Nathria
It's a decent card. Buff 1 minion summon another.
Pelagos is a New Legendary Priest Hearthstone Card Revealed by Inven Global for Castle Nathria
I hate innerfire Priest.
The Stonewright is a New Legendary Shaman Card Revealed by PCGamer for Castle Nathria
I think without even a totem support it is a good card. 4 mana 5/4 for an ongoing effect that makes you always have a board presence with your hero power is very promising. Even in aggro decks it is not bad at all.
Necrolord Draka is a New Legendary Rogue Card Revealed by 4Gamer for Castle Nathria
5 star card due to no room for weapon removal in my deck :(
Necrolord Draka is a New Legendary Rogue Card Revealed by 4Gamer for Castle Nathria
True.
The Stonewright is a New Legendary Shaman Card Revealed by PCGamer for Castle Nathria
Oh boy they sure know how to make legendaries exciting +2 attack.
They could have just made this an epic card 2 mana 2/2 but +1 attack instead so you would have to play 2 of them.
Idk I just wish it was more flashy. Shaman legendaries are always too simple and boring. Aside from hero cards.
The Stonewright is a New Legendary Shaman Card Revealed by PCGamer for Castle Nathria
Were we so innocent back then?
Leo Robles Gives Us An Imp-ortant Clarification On Imp King Rafaam and Other Imp Synergies
Just came in to make the same comment about sub-categories, but Flux beat me to the punch. :)
Leo Robles Gives Us An Imp-ortant Clarification On Imp King Rafaam and Other Imp Synergies
I wish we had sub-tribes as it would add a ton of flavor to the game, but I understand it is better to keep Hearthstone simple at the core. MTG's tribes are exciting to read even though they can be a mouthful at times.
Treants, Whelps, and Imps all definitely deserve something - it's almost as bad as the Alliance and Horde issue with Mercenaries. I wish there was a good spot on the card for an extra icon. The least they could do is put a tooltip over these sub-tribes so when you mouse over them you get to see what they belong to. Maybe something could work with the top right corner of cards. Even ignoring legendary cards, it would be a bit awkward to change the shape of our beloved frame, but the text box could never be used for such an icon as it should be made available for the description. Maybe the text box just needs to kick things off with Imp. Envoy gets a bit more crowded but it would make it clear as day that its a part of the mechanics, much like when we call upon doubling the Battlecry keyword via Brann Bronzebeard. Making subtribes a keyword could also open up a ton of design space. Kitten Beast archetype when?
Though honestly, I think just making Imp the tribe itself and then making it required knowledge that an Imp is always a demon as well would work too. The game has gotten more complicated over the years as the playerbased has matured, I don't see this being a major pain to do.
Great article!
Leo Robles Gives Us An Imp-ortant Clarification On Imp King Rafaam and Other Imp Synergies
Yeah, it's not great.
If they can figure out some type of visual indicator to put onto cards to specify what counts as an Imp, then that would be great. While they're at it, they can do the same thing for things like Treants or Whelps, and that would even open the door to many other different designs that could be utilized for these "tribes" that aren't really tribes.
It was just sort of weird when Whelps did it, but now with Imps and how many cards that count as such aren't specified in name, I can see this becoming a problem in the future.
Leo Robles Gives Us An Imp-ortant Clarification On Imp King Rafaam and Other Imp Synergies
I dislike using art as a mechanic. I guess it's OK because it's a digital game and HS is already pretty simple, to begin with. Still, I hate the idea of potentially losing because you didn't realize the art on Ring Matron or Tiny Knight of Evil depicted an imp (Though it's obvious the knight is an imp now in retrospect lol).
Marvel Snap Streamer Tobimaro Finds Tournament Mode Hints in Game Files
If Hearthstone has taught us anything, it's that it is impossible to code a tournament mode for a card-based game.
New Shaman Minion - The Stonewright
This is the same as Frizz Kindleroost, but it buffs your totems. The issue with Frizz was that it costed too much and would have a neglible impact on the rest of the game because of how late you would get its effect off. The main difference is that this immediately does something if you have totems out, and in that case its pretty good. It can't ever be good though, because then people would just kill the unbuffed totems. I would call it a good card if she herself were a totem, but she isn't. Also, the lack of decent totem support in standard makes this very underwhelming as well.
Boon of the Ascended is a New Priest Hearthstone Card Revealed by LookSam for Castle Nathria
Using "cannot attack" minions might be the way to make it work indeed, as without discounted huge minions, it's going to be hard to find a good target for this spell.
Pelagos is a New Legendary Priest Hearthstone Card Revealed by Inven Global for Castle Nathria
I'm pretty sure this card itself is broken, but as it is a one-of and not easy to tutor, the deck could suffer from low consistency. On the other hand, Wig Priest is not terrible right now, so adding one more high-roll to it might just make it good enough.
Other bad archetypes like Pirates and Freeze Shaman eventually became playable because new and much more powerful cards.
Leo Robles Gives Us An Imp-ortant Clarification On Imp King Rafaam and Other Imp Synergies
Jeez Louise, I was just starting to wrap my smooth brain around having more than 10 deck slots, and now this!
Stay On Target - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
A couple initial ideas. I really like the flavor of Bad Romance, but the effect is admittedly on the basic side. Covetous Shade works nicely with all the stat play Priest has been getting recently, like Switcheroo and some of the Castle Nathria stuff. Lots of cool ideas for the comp so far!
Necrolord Draka is a New Legendary Rogue Card Revealed by 4Gamer for Castle Nathria
I don't think it needs all that much support to be good enough, because of the 3 durability. Coining this out on turn 3 gives you a Spider Tank + a 2/3 weapon, that's pretty decent at that stage of the game. I don't think this is a build-around card, but it is likely a good addition to any low-curve deck.
Marvel Snap Streamer Tobimaro Finds Tournament Mode Hints in Game Files
how... would a tournament work based on the snap doubling mechanic being an absolute core element of gameplay???
Necrolord Draka is a New Legendary Rogue Card Revealed by 4Gamer for Castle Nathria
Even if you can craft a deck that could play 30 cards in one turn, the animation slowness makes it unlikely you'll actually be able to execute it. Spectral Pillager OTKs already require good APM and there you can take advantage of a doubled battlecry, but in this case that will just override the weapon instead of giving you twice the damage.
The Stonewright is a New Legendary Shaman Card Revealed by PCGamer for Castle Nathria
Yeah, I loved Ey’sor decks. You just had to have good mulligan and early draws to get rolling. The nerf to Bloom actually makes this a lot harder to get double Ey’sor early. But that occasional turn 2 double Bloom into Ey’sor and Totemic Reflections was a hell of a turn! If even one survives until turn four the Splitting Axe got you going again!
Blizzard Reveals 9 More Murder at Castle Nathria Cards in a Hearthside Chat, Including Warlock Legendary
so far it feels like 80% of the cards are "same old stuff, but + numbers when stuff has died" ...
can't say this bunch of cards feel inspired at all ...
The Stonewright is a New Legendary Shaman Card Revealed by PCGamer for Castle Nathria
Even if the card seems very cool, the main problem about it is that you can't create a deck that relies totally on it. If you can't cast it on turn 4 maybe in the 60+% of the matches it simply lose the most of matches. And again, what does the deck do in the meantime? The past totem shaman have been in a good spot for a brief time thanks to tools like the totemica reflection, as well as the 0cost area buffs and eyes'or. We have to see lots of other cards that could fit there, but I'm not sure that they would be enough to make the deck viable: even the anchored totem is useless in this deck.