This got me excited. I've never enjoyed priest (probably my least favourite class), especially during the current meta. I find the shadow spell restriction quite fun as it'll get more shadow spells like Devouring Plague to see more play. Also lets your opponent know you're running a restricted number of spells. We now also have a viable win condition other than infinite generation and boring your opponent to death.
Can't wait to see the Diamond version!
Also, a shout out to Aesan for summarizing all the new info we've received about UiS. Great job and some awesome news!
1 mana 2 damage is kinda ok. But add on the 4 heal and it is suddenly amazing. Mortal Coil is heavily used and it only does 1 damage for the draw. The only reason I make the reference is that with Warlock, Health = Cards
I had said previously that rise of the underworld was absolutely a top notch expansion for brewers but I have to say that these card releases during this event might be just as good if not better
----lets run through a few of the standouts---
Champions:
Akshan is a very flexible card, he can be aggressive and combo oriented, he can be a card advantage tool for control decks, and he's just great landmark support.
Shadow dude is a bit meh by comparison, I like the idea of mind control being better implemented into the game (follower stealing) but I don't like that he's also a better Nasus at the same time. (A little too easy mode) but not op because of how slow he is.
---Removal----
We were just talking about how there's no good removal in shadow isles, and we just got two really strong pieces. It turns out spending 4 mana for slow speed champion removal is actually kiiiinda good, it also adds value to all your healing
Similarly 5 mana drain two from two units is kind of a high value static shock I love it.
---followers---
Shurima gets a 5 mana 5/5 finally and getting free treasures is pretty strong if you have the support to keep it alive
6 mana for a better cat submarine in Ionia is beyond strong. Because you can choose slow, fast, or burst you can actually reliably tutor out answers...like I dont know 4 mana champion removal.
I like Ibex a lot for more support pieces poor lulu needs some love.
Getting free attacks in noxious is pretty interesting, having a way to turbo level MF in a pirate aggro shell ads nuanced possibilities to a hunga bunga deck
Ice wolf mother is probably my low key favorite, even without running "a lot" of frostbite I found the wolf cub getting to like a 12/12 in Long games and it offers a finisher for frostbite decks that makes more sense thematically
Fury dude is the last one to mention, it's a little akward because if you get a really big Shivana you need to give her overwhelm to win, so that's absolver or sunlight blade, and I'm not an all in on one card kind of player.
Overall just a really solid event that pairs well with both the new champions/cards we got last go around plus the large number of balance changes.
I'm willing to admit that this outstanding work by Riot and honestly if they want to adopt the it ain't broke dont fix it mentality for the rest of the summer they've earned it honestly.
I found it funny that Liv said so and their first early reveal was Touch of the Nathrezim regardless (I added a small relevant note next to that part now, having written the segment beforehand). I guess they want to be careful to avoid the situations from the past you mention, but not dealing in absolutes such as zero new ways to restore health, period.
It's definitely the kind of balance that gives them trouble. How to make Warlock not topple to aggression too easily, but at the same time don't make it unbeatable for anything slower.
So if we're getting diamond benedictus, does that mean a diamond hero power as well? Wonder how distracting it can get having it hover around on your right.
Quest mechanics often fail because of the deck building restrictions it tends to bring, and the overall power level of the reward itself. Its a delicate balance to get right, as we have seen from the Ungoro quests, probably featuring the best of the lot so far.
- Raid the Sky Temple is a fairly easy quest to complete, but falls short because after its completed it rarely ever wins you the game.
- Making Mummies would have been great, the reward was a fairly broken hp that practically doubles your deathrattles, but the conditions to finishing it forces you to play half your deck filled with fairly standard reborn minions instead of the powerful deathrattles you need to actually win the game.
And now we have Sorcerer's Gambit. The reward is powerful, game winning even. Not much deck restrictions too. But good luck actually finishing the quest, because its way too contrived to expect a game to flow between three different spell types, three times no less. There's a legitimate chance you wont ever finish it even against a control player if your deck is arranged in such a way so one type is all at the bottom. I really hope team5 have designed some real cheap fire spells, or maybe some sort of all spell, like how amalgams count as an 'all' minion type. Otherwise, this one will join that trend of poor success rate with quest decks.
I really think the quests should actually cost 0, because why not? The conditions, the deck restrictions, and the fact that you're practically playing one card less from the start is already limiting enough. Its not like its going to make any of the quest decks OP out of nowhere.
When talking about their favorite Mercenaries, Celestalon picked Varden Dawngrasp, while Matt London sided with Guff Runetotem and then teased Xyrella's Questline as one of his absolute top cards.
I'm hyped about what are they going to do with the Xyrella's questline. Matt London said that it may be his favorite card in Hearthstone.
Some good healing for the Demon Seed. But also just a really useful card. It reminds me of a cross between Zilliax and Mistress of Mixtures, which are both strong cards. This will 100% see play and is appreciated by all control warlock players everywhere.
The Demon Seed coming for Warlock doesn't necessarily mean we are going to see even more strong healing options for the class. The dev team is wary of instances where it might become too much.
Then why do you keep printing inevitable win conditions for Warlock when they're not allowed to actually heal back damage?
People keep going on about how Warlock is always OP when they have enough healing, but that's just not true. It just happens that whenever they have decent healing they also have some unavoidable win condition so they automatically end up in top tier. That's what happened with Cubelock, Controllock and is what would happen with Tickatus if the deck was any good. Just print some Big Demon synergy to add alongside Jaraxxus and we have a decent lategame win plan that doesn't just fold to aggro and midrange because they just lose more health than they can heal.
There are actually more than there initially seems like there would be. Off the top of my head, Guess the Weight and Sphere of Sapience provide two options. As as aforementioned even though it doesn't work like a traditional choice card, Death Coil could also fit into that category as well. Actually if Death Coil counts, then Demonfire and Demonheart would also count.
In the realm of more than two options, then you expand this even further. I've always felt that Choose One shouldn't have been a Druid-specific keyword since in addition to opening lots of design spaces for other classes, modal effects are just a main staple for a lot of card games.
It might be just me but to me it seems you never take the effort to finetune your lists.
The reason why I think so is that you always build lists with every card but 1 as a 3 of which makes me think you don't think too hard what cards might work better as a 1 or 2 of.
While it is sufficient to build this style of decks in unranked environment you should consider finetuning quantities and tech cards for the current meta to end up with a (slighly) more optimal list.
For example: Battle Fury certainly has an application in this list and I see it as a card you want in the lategame at least once in your hand but not a card you wouldn't mind having multiples of in your hand during midgame (what a 3 of represents) cut it down to 1-2 copies and you will certainly be better off
Nirast: It's a bit too creative for my taste. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of a card that uses a choice between two options outside of "Choose One".
Really great ideas overall! So far I have voted seven times 4 stars and one time 5 stars (might have been more without the watermark problem mentioned above) out of 16 cards. Crazy!
Nirast: It's a bit too creative for my taste. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of a card that uses a choice between two options outside of "Choose One".
I don't think it's unheard of, just not phrased this way. I think it should be something along the lines of:
"Give a minion +3/+4. If it's an enemy minion with 3 or less Attack, destroy it instead. When the target dies, summon a Crab."
Tried it in HearthCards. Sadly it takes up to much space on the card. Edit: Nevermind, if you cut it between "When" and "the target" it fits on four lines.
Remember to force apply the watermark to your token cards if you have any. They don't have a rarity gem, but they do have a watermark (Xyrella's Elekk). Only 1 of the 6 currently submitted cards with a token thought of that and they used an exisiting token from an old set. (You do that by selecting "Custom" in the watermark drop down field [even if you're using the watermark from an existing expansion] and tick the box "Force Apply Emblem").
Cheese: I have to agree with Wailor, Repair Bots might be the card with the coolest flavor so far. Great idea!
Nirast: It's a bit too creative for my taste. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of a card that uses a choice between two options outside of "Choose One".
Really great ideas overall! So far I have voted seven times 4 stars and one time 5 stars (might have been more without the watermark problem mentioned above) out of 16 cards. Crazy!
I think you're missing an essential element which is the fact that it is both lifegain and removal at the same time. This is precisely what made Samuro + Apotheosis so strong and the entire reason why Warlock clearing your entire board multiple times in a row doesn't make much of a difference if they don't have time to heal themselves inbetween.
This makes it so you can do both at the same time which makes surviving a lot easier.
Just think of the Hunter matchup if they start out with an intrepid Initiate. Sure, you can play Armor Vendor to heal for 4, but the Vendor won't trade into that and you're just gonna eat 3 damage again. Meanwhile, with this you can both kill the Initiate and heal off any damage it might have done.
Not to mention that Warlock has plenty of damage dealing spells that can set this up so you will be very rarely in a situation where you have to use the card without getting the heal (if 2 damage isn't enough to kill what's in front of you you're already in a bad spot anyways, so it wouln't matter)
I agree that there's a discussion to be had over whether it is fighting for the same spot as Armor Vendor, especially in the current iterations of warlock.
I'm not sure what the Questline deck will look like in the end (I've never been very good with the class), but if competition between the Vendor and the new spell exists there, I'd expect the spell to win simply because you won't often be playing the Vendor on turn 1, so the body won't be worth nearly as much as it usually is.
A Roundup of News Related to Hearthstone's United in Stormwind Expansion and Upcoming Content
This got me excited. I've never enjoyed priest (probably my least favourite class), especially during the current meta. I find the shadow spell restriction quite fun as it'll get more shadow spells like Devouring Plague to see more play. Also lets your opponent know you're running a restricted number of spells. We now also have a viable win condition other than infinite generation and boring your opponent to death.
Can't wait to see the Diamond version!
Also, a shout out to Aesan for summarizing all the new info we've received about UiS. Great job and some awesome news!
Ride And Die - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
I was mostly thinking of cards that are worded "Do this, or do that", but your examples are also good, Demon.
I agree Choose One shouldn't be exclusive to Druid, and I would argue neither should Combo.
New Warlock Spell - Touch of the Nathrezim
1 mana 2 damage is kinda ok. But add on the 4 heal and it is suddenly amazing.
Mortal Coil is heavily used and it only does 1 damage for the draw. The only reason I make the reference is that with Warlock, Health = Cards
Riot Is Outdoing Itself Lately
I had said previously that rise of the underworld was absolutely a top notch expansion for brewers but I have to say that these card releases during this event might be just as good if not better
----lets run through a few of the standouts---
Champions:
Akshan is a very flexible card, he can be aggressive and combo oriented, he can be a card advantage tool for control decks, and he's just great landmark support.
Shadow dude is a bit meh by comparison, I like the idea of mind control being better implemented into the game (follower stealing) but I don't like that he's also a better Nasus at the same time. (A little too easy mode) but not op because of how slow he is.
---Removal----
We were just talking about how there's no good removal in shadow isles, and we just got two really strong pieces. It turns out spending 4 mana for slow speed champion removal is actually kiiiinda good, it also adds value to all your healing
Similarly 5 mana drain two from two units is kind of a high value static shock I love it.
---followers---
Shurima gets a 5 mana 5/5 finally and getting free treasures is pretty strong if you have the support to keep it alive
6 mana for a better cat submarine in Ionia is beyond strong. Because you can choose slow, fast, or burst you can actually reliably tutor out answers...like I dont know 4 mana champion removal.
I like Ibex a lot for more support pieces poor lulu needs some love.
Getting free attacks in noxious is pretty interesting, having a way to turbo level MF in a pirate aggro shell ads nuanced possibilities to a hunga bunga deck
Ice wolf mother is probably my low key favorite, even without running "a lot" of frostbite I found the wolf cub getting to like a 12/12 in Long games and it offers a finisher for frostbite decks that makes more sense thematically
Fury dude is the last one to mention, it's a little akward because if you get a really big Shivana you need to give her overwhelm to win, so that's absolver or sunlight blade, and I'm not an all in on one card kind of player.
Overall just a really solid event that pairs well with both the new champions/cards we got last go around plus the large number of balance changes.
I'm willing to admit that this outstanding work by Riot and honestly if they want to adopt the it ain't broke dont fix it mentality for the rest of the summer they've earned it honestly.
Touch of the Nathrezim
1 mana 2 damage is kinda ok. But add on the 4 heal and it is suddenly amazing
A Roundup of News Related to Hearthstone's United in Stormwind Expansion and Upcoming Content
I found it funny that Liv said so and their first early reveal was Touch of the Nathrezim regardless (I added a small relevant note next to that part now, having written the segment beforehand). I guess they want to be careful to avoid the situations from the past you mention, but not dealing in absolutes such as zero new ways to restore health, period.
It's definitely the kind of balance that gives them trouble. How to make Warlock not topple to aggression too easily, but at the same time don't make it unbeatable for anything slower.
A Roundup of News Related to Hearthstone's United in Stormwind Expansion and Upcoming Content
Battlegrounds Cosmetics in the Rewards Track
A Roundup of News Related to Hearthstone's United in Stormwind Expansion and Upcoming Content
So if we're getting diamond benedictus, does that mean a diamond hero power as well? Wonder how distracting it can get having it hover around on your right.
Quest mechanics often fail because of the deck building restrictions it tends to bring, and the overall power level of the reward itself. Its a delicate balance to get right, as we have seen from the Ungoro quests, probably featuring the best of the lot so far.
- Raid the Sky Temple is a fairly easy quest to complete, but falls short because after its completed it rarely ever wins you the game.
- Making Mummies would have been great, the reward was a fairly broken hp that practically doubles your deathrattles, but the conditions to finishing it forces you to play half your deck filled with fairly standard reborn minions instead of the powerful deathrattles you need to actually win the game.
And now we have Sorcerer's Gambit. The reward is powerful, game winning even. Not much deck restrictions too. But good luck actually finishing the quest, because its way too contrived to expect a game to flow between three different spell types, three times no less. There's a legitimate chance you wont ever finish it even against a control player if your deck is arranged in such a way so one type is all at the bottom. I really hope team5 have designed some real cheap fire spells, or maybe some sort of all spell, like how amalgams count as an 'all' minion type. Otherwise, this one will join that trend of poor success rate with quest decks.
I really think the quests should actually cost 0, because why not? The conditions, the deck restrictions, and the fact that you're practically playing one card less from the start is already limiting enough. Its not like its going to make any of the quest decks OP out of nowhere.
A Roundup of News Related to Hearthstone's United in Stormwind Expansion and Upcoming Content
I'm hyped about what are they going to do with the Xyrella's questline. Matt London said that it may be his favorite card in Hearthstone.
New Warlock Spell - Touch of the Nathrezim
Some good healing for the Demon Seed. But also just a really useful card. It reminds me of a cross between Zilliax and Mistress of Mixtures, which are both strong cards. This will 100% see play and is appreciated by all control warlock players everywhere.
A Roundup of News Related to Hearthstone's United in Stormwind Expansion and Upcoming Content
Then why do you keep printing inevitable win conditions for Warlock when they're not allowed to actually heal back damage?
People keep going on about how Warlock is always OP when they have enough healing, but that's just not true. It just happens that whenever they have decent healing they also have some unavoidable win condition so they automatically end up in top tier. That's what happened with Cubelock, Controllock and is what would happen with Tickatus if the deck was any good. Just print some Big Demon synergy to add alongside Jaraxxus and we have a decent lategame win plan that doesn't just fold to aggro and midrange because they just lose more health than they can heal.
New Warlock Spell - Touch of the Nathrezim
This looks very good. It's a nice little bit of healing that will be sorely needed in Questline decks.
Ride And Die - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
There are actually more than there initially seems like there would be. Off the top of my head, Guess the Weight and Sphere of Sapience provide two options. As as aforementioned even though it doesn't work like a traditional choice card, Death Coil could also fit into that category as well. Actually if Death Coil counts, then Demonfire and Demonheart would also count.
In the realm of more than two options, then you expand this even further. I've always felt that Choose One shouldn't have been a Druid-specific keyword since in addition to opening lots of design spaces for other classes, modal effects are just a main staple for a lot of card games.
Ride And Die - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
True, thanks for helping me out :)
Overwhelm new meta
It might be just me but to me it seems you never take the effort to finetune your lists.
The reason why I think so is that you always build lists with every card but 1 as a 3 of which makes me think you don't think too hard what cards might work better as a 1 or 2 of.
While it is sufficient to build this style of decks in unranked environment you should consider finetuning quantities and tech cards for the current meta to end up with a (slighly) more optimal list.
For example: Battle Fury certainly has an application in this list and I see it as a card you want in the lategame at least once in your hand but not a card you wouldn't mind having multiples of in your hand during midgame (what a 3 of represents) cut it down to 1-2 copies and you will certainly be better off
Ride And Die - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Death Coil
Ride And Die - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
I don't think it's unheard of, just not phrased this way. I think it should be something along the lines of:
"Give a minion +3/+4. If it's an enemy minion with 3 or less Attack, destroy it instead. When the target dies, summon a Crab."
Tried it in HearthCards. Sadly it takes up to much space on the card. Edit: Nevermind, if you cut it between "When" and "the target" it fits on four lines.
Dean Ayala's Hearthstone Community Q&A #21 - New Minion Types Coming to Constructed, Possible New Adventure Next Year
Hey, I haven't thought of that! Cool way of seeing it, thanks!
New Warlock Spell - Touch of the Nathrezim
I like this card. It has a similar thought and feel to Mortal Coil. I think this will be a staple card in most Warlock decks.
Ride And Die - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Remember to force apply the watermark to your token cards if you have any. They don't have a rarity gem, but they do have a watermark (Xyrella's Elekk). Only 1 of the 6 currently submitted cards with a token thought of that and they used an exisiting token from an old set. (You do that by selecting "Custom" in the watermark drop down field [even if you're using the watermark from an existing expansion] and tick the box "Force Apply Emblem").
Cheese: I have to agree with Wailor, Repair Bots might be the card with the coolest flavor so far. Great idea!
Nirast: It's a bit too creative for my taste. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of a card that uses a choice between two options outside of "Choose One".
Really great ideas overall! So far I have voted seven times 4 stars and one time 5 stars (might have been more without the watermark problem mentioned above) out of 16 cards. Crazy!
Riot Has Changed the Runeterra Event Pass! Ruined King & Sentinels Card Backs + Icons are Now Free on Both Passes
look how easily they changed pass and give people better and more free stuff. only if hearthstone could do the same...
A New Stormwind Warlock Spell Has Been Revealed by Coin Concede - Touch of the Nathrezim
You say this as if Warlock is a good class right now.
A New Stormwind Warlock Spell Has Been Revealed by Coin Concede - Touch of the Nathrezim
I think you're missing an essential element which is the fact that it is both lifegain and removal at the same time. This is precisely what made Samuro + Apotheosis so strong and the entire reason why Warlock clearing your entire board multiple times in a row doesn't make much of a difference if they don't have time to heal themselves inbetween.
This makes it so you can do both at the same time which makes surviving a lot easier.
Just think of the Hunter matchup if they start out with an intrepid Initiate. Sure, you can play Armor Vendor to heal for 4, but the Vendor won't trade into that and you're just gonna eat 3 damage again. Meanwhile, with this you can both kill the Initiate and heal off any damage it might have done.
Not to mention that Warlock has plenty of damage dealing spells that can set this up so you will be very rarely in a situation where you have to use the card without getting the heal (if 2 damage isn't enough to kill what's in front of you you're already in a bad spot anyways, so it wouln't matter)
A New Stormwind Warlock Spell Has Been Revealed by Coin Concede - Touch of the Nathrezim
Clearly a support for Warlock's questline and it's a good one. At least one copy of it should be playable in controlock and two in questlock
A New Stormwind Warlock Spell Has Been Revealed by Coin Concede - Touch of the Nathrezim
I agree that there's a discussion to be had over whether it is fighting for the same spot as Armor Vendor, especially in the current iterations of warlock.
I'm not sure what the Questline deck will look like in the end (I've never been very good with the class), but if competition between the Vendor and the new spell exists there, I'd expect the spell to win simply because you won't often be playing the Vendor on turn 1, so the body won't be worth nearly as much as it usually is.