All Comments

Pls nerf pirate warrior, I dont think that is that strong on standard but is so anoying to face, and weapon rogue and the xyrella hero card (I want thad dust :) )

I didn't put it right. I actually had some bonus stars, but they quickly ran out somewhere in the middle of the way.

Reached rank 3 playing only on pirate warrior. Then I often started getting bad opponents and in almost every game the Anchor and Patches were received at mulligan or at the start of the game. Totally unlucky. I decided to try to play the odd quest hunter and even reached rank 2, but then fell back to 3 again. So I decided to take the pirate warrior again and got stuck at rank 2. After the break, I reached the rank  1 and I was like, "now there will be ups and downs again." But suddenly I start winning every game. They gave me a shaman and I thought it was an instant lose, but he played a Dirty Rat on the 2nd turn, pulled out Mr. Smite and concede. I didn't believe in a miracle, but I was already on the last boss. It was a mirror. The game was purely under my control. He had 8 HP, and I had 21. I still thought that suddenly something would happen and I would lose. My heart started pounding wildly. And then on the 6th turn I run to my wife and deal the last 4 damage. "I've become a legend!"

As a reward for achieving the legend, I received Tamsin's Phylactery.

And I'll definitely make fun of a friend with "As a Legend player, I …" lul.

But don't you think that's unhealthy that 3 separate game modes have almost exactly the same deck? Duels can be competitive and also different. It's just a business decision what needs to be taken. The game mode can be competitive with questlines or without questlines. The main fact here is that questlines are unfun (and specially on a game mode like Duels)

I personally think quest lines deserve the Genn and Baku approach. Making them in standard was a huge mistake. But that's just personal opinion.

Gotta love a good Vanndar deck! Is Resizing Pouch too greedy?

Congratulations!

Can you share your feelings after you won against the gatekeeper opponent and became Legend?

By the way, you can now start every HS related sentence with "As a Legend player, I …" 🤣

Hey, congrats! And so early in the month, without the bonus stars, wow! Pirate warrior all the way? I´m silver 10 and already exhausted lol. Gonna try to do some climb today. Enjoy the feeling! :)

P.S. what was your legendary?

Ups and downs, ups and downs... and amazing winstreak with a bit of luck. I finally did it! 

I don't know why, but at some point in time it became a bit easier for me to play some games in a row in rating mode. Last game was hard for me to play though. I hope I won't try to do this anymore.

Thanks again to all of you for support and good luck to everyone else!

We need highrolls in the game to keep it relevant? I don't see how this was ever necessary for a good game?

Consistantcy was always a key feature of good decks which is why boat effects were introduced.

There is nothing wrong with putting power budget into champions but with an overall increasing powerlevel and an increasing quality of spot removal playing around single champions is not supposed to be a key to success anymore.

Champion designes like Zoe are the new way to go for champions: rather cheap units that generate value and which resemles a viable lvl 2 win condition which doesn't care if the unit dies right after level up.

Lee Sin is a huge outlier in the championpool and kinda the last champion to be hyperresilient to removal. 

There is no good reason why a 5 mana champion should be an outlier in this regard. I could see him doing what he does on 7+ mana since greater costs comes with greater tolerance for an acceptable powerlevel (looking at unnerfed Sion) 

Thanks! Honestly Thekal is pretty important for winrate (0 mana 8/8s wins quite a lot of games) but it can still be fun without it. Maybe sub in the new Saidan the Scarlet to work well with buffs or just a simple Zilliax. Thekal is also good for some other aggro decks and Reno Paladins.

This deck looks awesome. I can't wait to play it. I don't have Thekal, but I have the rest! Thanks for the great guide and write-up as usual!

I didn’t see this until now - definitely here if you still have it, I’d love to give it a try!

If you have a better way to phrase it, I would be very appreciative to hear it :)

Otherwise, i'd go with the first one. "to equal" seems like an odd phrasing for Hearthstone and the third option changes its effect.

The word "turns" also should be singular if the effect normally only lasts a single turn.

It doesn't, the counter was meant for uses. But I think there just isn't enough space to make its effect clear, so maybe sticking to the Objective layout is the best.

Sadly this removes the Arcane synergy I'm so fond of. I want it to be a 2-cost, since I think people underestimate how lucrative getting to choose your cards is, while it guarantees 2 draws and should only be worth including if you have extra card draw. It even supports cards like Refreshing Spring Water in decks that also use a few minions. Although I'd like to know which effect, cost and name you guys prefer?

First throw the pebbles.
Then throw the pebbles.
Threw last pebble? Ok!
Now you have a rock.

I took alliance only because at the time there was only combo or aggro decks and I was like 'hey maybe a big minion deck can be made with this vanndar dude'

I knew it had little chance to work but taking the other card to try yet another face deck was not even an option.

I wonder if other people made the same reasoning and if the outcome of the battle was more about the meta we wanted than some horde vs alliance pride stuff.

Thanks for commenting! Yeah I love multidimensional decks the most too. I’ll mention the poll in a note next time I do it.

Good read. I never played Shirvalla decks myself, but...

First it looked frustrating even when watching streamers play it, the pain when Shirvalla was one of the last cards :D and secondly I don't have Shirvalla or Thekal in my collection atm.

But with ever increasing Wild card pool, it's crazy how multi-dimensional this deck became and how many synergies you can include in 1 deck now.

Also thought that the poll could be mentioned somewhere in the top part. Anyway, thanks for interesting article as always

Omg are we nerfing Lee Sin now too even with its abysmal winrate.

Killing Poppy and Azir and literally every single champ focus strategy wasn't enough in the game?

God we really are looking at Gwent all over again. 

Champs are supposed to win games guys its literally the reason they are in the game.

Case study: When burn aggro was the best deck in the game for what felt like 2 years running they could of nerfed temo said plant 4 mushrooms given him quick attack instead of elusive or whatever.

But the devs said no that's stupid let's nerf the followers instead so we dont take the fun out of our game. When Nab was oppressive once again they nerfed the follower instead of gangplank because they knew Champs go in lots of decks followers go in 1 deck.

Now they seem to have reverted that design philosophy and we are feeling its affects now. Less deck building, less originality, less hard muliganing to keep Champs always muliganing for combo or curve. Like it dumbs everything down to pure math, and honestly as a game of math Legends sucks you needs quests and high rolls and lucky draws if you want the game to remain relevant.

I feel like the best way to nerf Lee Sin (at least the most efficient one) is by reducing his Power to 2 or even 1 therefore slowing down his gameplan but not effectively killing his combo entirely. The decks that has a bad matchup with him will still likely lose but Lee Sin won't be able to just cheese out wins as often.

Though, I don't think this will ever happen seeing as the devs had once said that they had thought about it when he was 4 Mana but still decided to make him a 5 mana 3/5 and seeing as they never tried to nerf him ever since, I don't think it's ever happening.

Quote From WarNerve

Someone won something,? I must have missed something because the only thing I see is everyone getting a diamond card that isn’t even really used. So amazingly awesome that battle was.

Vanndar Stormpike is used in Big priest, and likely will be included in any "Big" deck in the future. While priest isnt popular right now, I like the deck and will put the diamond card in place of the golden one when I get it.

I have noticed that since the end of the battle, it looks like you only get 20 honor per win. I have played a lot of constructed, I doubt it was only against one side of the battle and have yet to see 40 honor for a win.

Quote From WarNerve

Quote From dapperdog

They can annoy a lot of people by making cards exclusive, or make more people happy playing their game by giving everyone something to enjoy.

I think most would merely need to be a human with normal amounts of empathy to make the right decision here.

I knew they were going to give away the card to everyone regardless and this is exactly why the “event” was meaningless. Trying to imply I’m a soulless troll with no feelings or caring for others tells me a lot about you. My comment criticized the people who make the game not those who play it.  By the way the NFL announced both teams who play in the Super Bowl will be declared champions and will receive a trophy. The score will not even be kept because keeping score is offensive and can cause feelings of exclusion. If the NFL really announced this do you think anyone would even care to watch the game ?  W

Except this isn't the NFL, its a card game where resources are created out of thin air. NFL players are paid high salaries to win, and likewise its audience pays a huge price to watch them butt heads against one another. NFL players would spend a third of their lives training in preparations, all in an effort to be the best in the game, and despite it all a majority of them will never make it big.

Conversely hearthstone is none of those things. It is instead a game where a majority spend naught but an hour a day in, unpaid, where people come in and out in an effort to have fun. Its a game, not a sport, not a big part of our lives.

So let's assume that team5 really did make certain cards exclusive to winners, and that this Alterac event had high stakes attached where winners take all. Well, then they'd find out that the majority would simply not engage in it and at least half of its playerbase would come out pissed and move on to another game. And the next attempt at an event will likely be even worse in terms of player engagement. Its likely less an emotional decision, but a rational one designed to keep the vast majority of its playerbase happy

Not everything in life needs to be a race. I don't wake up every morning, do my 12 hour job, come back and attend to my second job - unpaid - called hearthstone.

Quote From Neoguli

The problem with Lee is Zenith Blade, or any card that gives Overwhelm. THAT is why he was prevalent when he was, because he could OTK you without that much effort. I don't think it's good service to nerf Dragon's Rage and consequently his lvl 2 just because of Overwhelm, but that keyword makes OTK Lee decks that much more oppressive.

I would still think it's better to just nerf Zenith Blade without touching Lee - that way, he's not as oppressive because of less incentive to run him with Targon. Perhaps giving Overwhelm only on Daybreak would be a solid middle-ground so that the Lee player has to make a more meaningful choice, and also can't play Lee into Blade on the same time without Rahvun.

Zenith Blade isn't the problem. Lee Sin problem is his ability to grant himself a barrier every turn which coupled with the good already good protective tools in Ionia makes night impossible to remove without something like Minimorph.

Riven is a champion that can OTK you with even less effort than Lee because she can give herself overwhelm and boost her own stats, yet nobody complains about Riven because she doesn't require you to run burst speed removal.

If you ban Questlines, something else will take their place. Moreover, there's also the competitive side of Duels, which cannot be denied for the sake of memes.