It has twin uses, the first is to target your own stuff for a spell damage buff, and the second as a removal option, which is something mages have been struggling with ever since Polymorph got booted from standard.
That said, my prediction would be that this card is simply a discover option rather than straight up included in decks. The problem is that its not really removal unless you either trade or ping it, so its unreliable or inefficient. For now anyway, there's only really two methods of reducing spell costs and both aren't exactly as ridiculous as Incanter's Flow, so its also unreliable as a spell damage option.
But with the widespread of handbuff pally, this represents a method to remove high stated divine shield minions, something which mage is currently struggling with. So if nothing else, it has to be respected whenever paladin faces mages, as opposed to the current strat, which is to bum out as many high stated minions as possible.
To me this is a good reload option for both naga mage or any other aggressive mage. Even played on curve, you'll likely get a 3 mana spell since nearly every secret is an arcane spell.
The only possible problem here is redundancy. Most mages can already draw well enough, and the spells dont last more than a turn which means its possible you're playing nothing more than a 2/2 for 2 without any further descriptions.
Old Guardian got to reveal the whole Naga package, 6 mercs: 3 Rare, 2 Epic, and 1 Legendary. Lord Slitherspear, Rare Fighter; Tidemistress Athissa, Rare Protector; Fathom-Lord Karathress, Rare Protector; Lady Vashj, Epic Fighter; Zar'Jira, the Sea Witch, Epic Caster; and Lady Azshara, Legendary Caster.
All card with "repeat" word will repeat the whole text on the card as if it were played again, including the repeat part again, and again. The chainbreaker would be a non-inflicting damage, or 0 damage.
Its a good card, provided you have a good amount of 1 drops in your deck.
No matter how you slice it, if you coin this on turn one it more or less guarantees a target for Doggie Biscuit on two, which is fairly insane. Even without the effect, its still a Tuskarrrr Trawler which means one way or another its doing something with vanilla stats.
A solid card, but the real deal is where to fit it? Perhaps face hunter can make a resurgence, because otherwise this card will never see play.
The problem with this card is that dhunters tend to play cheap stuff, and paying 5 mana to not deal with the board is about as bad as it gets. The only way you'd come close to making good with this would be to play something like Ambassador Faelin or Azsharan Defector so the board clear is guaranteed.
I dont think I need go further. A board clear that's inconsistent sucks, end off. Costing 5, not a chance.
Turn 1 weapon, turn 2 play 2/2 and draw a card. That's pretty neat.
But being a mere 2/2 means it'll never survive a turn so its going to only ever draw 1 card or 2 cards at most. Its not game winning stuff, but neat nevertheless.
The main thing that makes this card good is that it has lifesteal by default, so even if you cant rush it its a spidertank that must die or otherwise all that face damage goes down the drain.
Fel spells not being too scarce or difficult to cast, so it's going to be rushing in more often than not, and that's really good. I still think its more or less a tempo dhunter card, and in fel decks you much rather just play Eye Beam instead.
Certainly a very strong addition to dhunter's arsenal.
Thanks for bringing this up again. Honestly I was a little disappointed when Season 5 started without any changes to the system. I do know how life gets in the ways of plans we have and while the card design competitions surely are a great way to entertain ourselves, there are far higher priorities. I hope everything worked out in the best possible way for Shadows!
- Finalist Voting or nah? We couldn't reach an agreement about the idea of abolishing the finalist voting. The point stands though that participation goes way down during the finalist voting, partly due to the fact that the finalists can not vote themselves.
- New rating system? The idea of a new rating system didn't find many supporters. It was meant to serve the purpose of avoiding too harsh ratings. If someone is forced to rate balance and flavor seperately for example, an OP but flavorful card might come out with a better rating than with the current system, where people might just go "OP! 1 star!". There were different ideas for the execution of this like adding categories to rate the cards in or extending the star system. Another interesting option that came up for the finalist voting asks the voters to put the submissions into their prefered order.
- Quality of life improvements The description boxes for each card should be visible in the finalist voting. It would help to see the cards on our voting pages and in the finalist voting ordered by how many stars we gave them in the first voting stage. Rewards (not only for the winners?) would be nice :)
We ended up finding that we like the idea of having the description boxes available during voting. As far as rewards go, Gold is definitely something to give out. The main problem is just the fact that we simply don't have very many things to buy with the currency yet, or else it would absolutely be a go.
We all came to the conclusion that a more advanced rating system also wouldn't really help much. In addition to requiring much more work on the voter's part (it may not sound like much, but it forces voters to think about their rating much more thoroughly). It would also look much more intimidating to newer competitors and would end up lowering the voter turnout.
We did also agree that the finalist phase is quite important. There are several times where the highest-scoring card from the initial voting phase doesn't win in the end, which means that the finalist voting is still very impactful. Another problem with removing the finalist phase is that it allows the possibility of trying to cheat the system by submitting your card shortly before the deadline where an extremely late submission could up with a really high score just simply because of the fact that barely anyone voted for them and they all voted for them relatively high.
I agree with all what anchorm4n said. Finalist voting feels bad and too low engagement, more rating options would be awesome and some 2nd place and 3rd place rewards could be good for attracting new people. I personally suggest we at least increase the Finalist stage from 1 day to 2, just to squeeze in a few more votes.
And i know it would be very hard to do, but i really wish for a big comp again. A custom class or custom expansion competition.
Extending the finalist voting a day could be feasible. The side-comps we've hosted in the past has proven that people don't have any problems with keeping track of 2 competitions at one time, and this is easier than that.
I'd be just as excited about a custom class or custom expansion competition as you are, but we would need to figure out a much better system to do that because the current one we have for regular competitions absolutely will not cut it. I do also question its viability as an event at the moment since our turnout for regular competitions is already quite low (which is something that we hope to find a way to remedy), and a competition on as large of a scale as this requires monumentally more effort and upkeep from the competitors.
Strictly speaking on the ability to deal 5 damage + 2 to adjacent minions;
Its very difficult to avoid having reno swing board immediately on 6. This however does not share the same advantage because any decent player will surely not position his minions to allow you an easy snipe. And against tall minions, this will likely not even kill it.
The main advantage of this card is flexibility, but each of those abilities aren't all that powerful to me. Nice to have, but not game winning stuff.
"deal 5 damage to a minion and 2 to adjacent minions" is pretty good?
Remember when everyone thought Reno the Relicologist (Saviors of Uldum Highlander Legendary) would see 0 play and it ended up being one of the highest played winrates of the expansion?
Not saying it would be "broken" in this meta. But at it's base level, it's pretty good.
Tyrael is my favorite Diablo character, so I'm definitely on board with his addition to the game :) I went ahead and bought the Xuen Druid skin specifically because they had the same voice lol (and it came with Red Crane Jaina, IIRC).
Combo Compendium: Swordsoul - Making Plays and Avoiding Handtraps
The response window section was particularly helpful. If only the game wasn't swarming with bots so one could actually apply the practice...
New Mage Spell - Polymorph: Jellyfish
It has twin uses, the first is to target your own stuff for a spell damage buff, and the second as a removal option, which is something mages have been struggling with ever since Polymorph got booted from standard.
That said, my prediction would be that this card is simply a discover option rather than straight up included in decks. The problem is that its not really removal unless you either trade or ping it, so its unreliable or inefficient. For now anyway, there's only really two methods of reducing spell costs and both aren't exactly as ridiculous as Incanter's Flow, so its also unreliable as a spell damage option.
But with the widespread of handbuff pally, this represents a method to remove high stated divine shield minions, something which mage is currently struggling with. So if nothing else, it has to be respected whenever paladin faces mages, as opposed to the current strat, which is to bum out as many high stated minions as possible.
New Mage Minion - Submerged Spacerock
To me this is a good reload option for both naga mage or any other aggressive mage. Even played on curve, you'll likely get a 3 mana spell since nearly every secret is an arcane spell.
The only possible problem here is redundancy. Most mages can already draw well enough, and the spells dont last more than a turn which means its possible you're playing nothing more than a 2/2 for 2 without any further descriptions.
But I still like it nevertheless.
Hearthstone Patch Notes Partially Leaked - Battlegrounds & Mercenaries Updates, Book of Heroes Returns
Wasn't it confirmed in like a Q&A or something that there would be no solo content this year?
Hearthstone Mercenaries Gets Its Own Moment in the Spotlight With Teases of 12 Upcoming Characters
Old Guardian got to reveal the whole Naga package, 6 mercs: 3 Rare, 2 Epic, and 1 Legendary.
Lord Slitherspear, Rare Fighter; Tidemistress Athissa, Rare Protector; Fathom-Lord Karathress, Rare Protector; Lady Vashj, Epic Fighter; Zar'Jira, the Sea Witch, Epic Caster; and Lady Azshara, Legendary Caster.
18 mercs so far!
Three New Hunter Cards Revealed For Hearthstone's Throne of the Tides Mini-Set
Yeah, but there's a "repeat" word on it, so it's like playing another new spell, over and over.
Honestly, I don't know too. So I guess now we play the waiting game.
Three New Hunter Cards Revealed For Hearthstone's Throne of the Tides Mini-Set
All card with "repeat" word will repeat the whole text on the card as if it were played again, including the repeat part again, and again.
The chainbreaker would be a non-inflicting damage, or 0 damage.
Just like Defias Blastfisher, it ends when there's no Beast left.
Hearthstone Patch Notes Partially Leaked - Battlegrounds & Mercenaries Updates, Book of Heroes Returns
When it comes to packs you should either:
1) open as many packs as feels fun to you.
2) open until you get basically all of the Rares and maybe the Epics. Pulling a legendary Merc from a pack is not likely.
I think it's likely that most of the details will be available before the patch hits.
New Hunter Minion - Ancient Krakenbane
The main problem with this card is activating it, because hunters dont tend to fill half their deck with spells.
But if you do manage to activate it, its low cost means you can brann it out for 10 damage on 6, and that must be respected as an option.
Its not lightning the world on fire, but at some point someone will make it happen. The rewards are simply too good to ignore.
Hearthstone Mercenaries Gets Its Own Moment in the Spotlight With Teases of 12 Upcoming Characters
It's already so hard to keep up with coins for all these new characters. If they don't find new ways for it...
Three New Hunter Cards Revealed For Hearthstone's Throne of the Tides Mini-Set
My brain hurts looking at K9-0tron, it refuses to accept it as a seperate card from Pupbot.
New Hunter Spell - Shellshot
Its basically a better Deadly Shot. Do six damage across the enemy board for 3 mana is not good, but not bad either.
Quest hunter would probably still play it regardless. But to me, its really 50-50, because I dont think it accomplishes much at all.
New Hunter Minion - K9-0tron
Its a good card, provided you have a good amount of 1 drops in your deck.
No matter how you slice it, if you coin this on turn one it more or less guarantees a target for Doggie Biscuit on two, which is fairly insane. Even without the effect, its still a Tuskarrrr Trawler which means one way or another its doing something with vanilla stats.
A solid card, but the real deal is where to fit it? Perhaps face hunter can make a resurgence, because otherwise this card will never see play.
New Demon Hunter Spell - Topple the Idol
Not going to lie, this card sucks.
The problem with this card is that dhunters tend to play cheap stuff, and paying 5 mana to not deal with the board is about as bad as it gets. The only way you'd come close to making good with this would be to play something like Ambassador Faelin or Azsharan Defector so the board clear is guaranteed.
I dont think I need go further. A board clear that's inconsistent sucks, end off. Costing 5, not a chance.
Three New Hunter Cards Revealed For Hearthstone's Throne of the Tides Mini-Set
so was blizzard just lying when they said they'd push face hunter less or...
New Demon Hunter Minion - Fossil Fanatic
Turn 1 weapon, turn 2 play 2/2 and draw a card. That's pretty neat.
But being a mere 2/2 means it'll never survive a turn so its going to only ever draw 1 card or 2 cards at most. Its not game winning stuff, but neat nevertheless.
New Demon Hunter Minion - Herald of Chaos
The main thing that makes this card good is that it has lifesteal by default, so even if you cant rush it its a spidertank that must die or otherwise all that face damage goes down the drain.
Fel spells not being too scarce or difficult to cast, so it's going to be rushing in more often than not, and that's really good. I still think its more or less a tempo dhunter card, and in fel decks you much rather just play Eye Beam instead.
Certainly a very strong addition to dhunter's arsenal.
No quests
Thank you for answers.
WCDC Season 5 Feedback Thread
I must apologize, as I did not mean for it to take this long to get back to the two of you.
We ended up finding that we like the idea of having the description boxes available during voting. As far as rewards go, Gold is definitely something to give out. The main problem is just the fact that we simply don't have very many things to buy with the currency yet, or else it would absolutely be a go.
We all came to the conclusion that a more advanced rating system also wouldn't really help much. In addition to requiring much more work on the voter's part (it may not sound like much, but it forces voters to think about their rating much more thoroughly). It would also look much more intimidating to newer competitors and would end up lowering the voter turnout.
We did also agree that the finalist phase is quite important. There are several times where the highest-scoring card from the initial voting phase doesn't win in the end, which means that the finalist voting is still very impactful. Another problem with removing the finalist phase is that it allows the possibility of trying to cheat the system by submitting your card shortly before the deadline where an extremely late submission could up with a really high score just simply because of the fact that barely anyone voted for them and they all voted for them relatively high.
Extending the finalist voting a day could be feasible. The side-comps we've hosted in the past has proven that people don't have any problems with keeping track of 2 competitions at one time, and this is easier than that.
I'd be just as excited about a custom class or custom expansion competition as you are, but we would need to figure out a much better system to do that because the current one we have for regular competitions absolutely will not cut it. I do also question its viability as an event at the moment since our turnout for regular competitions is already quite low (which is something that we hope to find a way to remedy), and a competition on as large of a scale as this requires monumentally more effort and upkeep from the competitors.
Three New Mage Cards Revealed For Hearthstone's Throne of the Tides Mini-Set + Watch Alliestrasza & Crew's Live Review
Strictly speaking on the ability to deal 5 damage + 2 to adjacent minions;
Its very difficult to avoid having reno swing board immediately on 6. This however does not share the same advantage because any decent player will surely not position his minions to allow you an easy snipe. And against tall minions, this will likely not even kill it.
The main advantage of this card is flexibility, but each of those abilities aren't all that powerful to me. Nice to have, but not game winning stuff.
Three New Mage Cards Revealed For Hearthstone's Throne of the Tides Mini-Set + Watch Alliestrasza & Crew's Live Review
Yeah, I was anticipating a Paladin or a Demon Hunter legendary since they haven't gotten one from a miniset ever.
Throne of the Tides Card Reveals - Voyage to the Sunken City Mini-Set
so no n'zoth???
Too Much Is Not Enough - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Three New Mage Cards Revealed For Hearthstone's Throne of the Tides Mini-Set + Watch Alliestrasza & Crew's Live Review
"deal 5 damage to a minion and 2 to adjacent minions" is pretty good?
Remember when everyone thought Reno the Relicologist (Saviors of Uldum Highlander Legendary) would see 0 play and it ended up being one of the highest played winrates of the expansion?
Not saying it would be "broken" in this meta. But at it's base level, it's pretty good.
Hearthstone Mercenaries Gets Its Own Moment in the Spotlight With Teases of 12 Upcoming Characters
Tyrael is my favorite Diablo character, so I'm definitely on board with his addition to the game :) I went ahead and bought the Xuen Druid skin specifically because they had the same voice lol (and it came with Red Crane Jaina, IIRC).