Cards that give the other player stuff is nearly never played, unless they have a really good niche. And this one actually has it.
Coin is incredible powerful, more so if your deck is made to take full advantage of it. Rogue and druid decks for example uses coin better than any other class. The card also essentially innervate you first, so this is in effect a 1 mana 3/2. I wouldn't drop this card immediately, but admitably giving your opponent coin might just be too scary to imagine.
I'd like to do some more database-oriented stuff to make it more useful to know what skins have and dont have too because its clear Blizzard is not slowing down the skin train!
Its probably not as good as most people would think it is.
The cost reduction is insane. The method of which this is gained is not. Firstly you need to drop 3 mana do nothing for a turn. Then you need to actually manage 4 card draw, which in standard is not really easy to do. Then this would have to dodge weapon tech, and since Rustrot Viper is an actual insane card this will simply never see the light of day.
At very best you play this on turn 7, draw 3 with Backfire and complete the circle with a tradable card or just plain hp on 8. In nearly all scenarios, it sucks.
But of course, team5 often dont print cards for nothing so there might be something around the lines of like 2 mana draw 4, discard 2. Maybe, just maybe this card can justify its weight then. But until there is a reliable and cheap way to draw cards for warlock, this card is just a maybe at best, trash at worst.
As somebody who buys all the hero portraits, preparing for the day when Blizzard finally adds the "Random Hero" option, it's actually quite nice to see some released I won't have to buy, for once, since I don't play Battlegrounds.
I think the delay on mercs probably fudged a lot of their plans. I don't work for Blizzard so I wouldn't know, but it feels like they've gone back on a lot of things that they said they'd do on their roadmap because mercs is taking a while. It could also be that they're trying to sweep the delay under the rug by covering it up with other stuff like BG skins. That said, I'm not complaining; I'm perfectly happy to wait for a new gamemode so that it can be as polished as possible (Sonic 06 taught me this the hard way).
8 health for 3 mana is just about standard for a healing card. But with the option to throw this back for another card is what really makes this card work. At least in control warrior anyway.
Its probably the weakest tradable card yet, but control warrior needs armor and this one provides. With the added option to just throw this back into the deck against other control decks for a card (and still not lose the fatigue war) is really icing on the cake.
As mentioned by myself in several other 'tradable' card discussions: anything with the tradeable keyword is an instant 4 stars and up.
And this one is no different. Yes, its rather expensive to deal 3 damage to everything (poor Hellfire can't get a break) but with the option to basically mulligan this back for another card means this card will almost never be irrelevant. If its too expensive, bad, or not viable just trade it for another. The only true drawback of this card is that you'll have to actually put it in your deck.
This card is certainly interesting because its basically a stronger Spikeridged Steed and in a class where card discounting is relevant.
But it suffers from the fact that it requires priest to actually stick minions on board, which is an ask for a class that barely plays for tempo.
Still, this card absolutely crushes aggro decks, and without a silence will likely slow the game so much against midrange that priest simply wins from there. I take it that the Elekk is a beast as well (because why wouldn't it be) so that's one more reason to run it. For that reason this one gets high marks from me, but taken down a peg because priest is not really a class that plays for tempo.
Its a buff card in hunter so its inevitably going to be compared to cards like Don't Feed the Animals and the much stronger Dire Frenzy. The fact that neither has seen any play currently means this card has such a massive mountain of a climb to be viable.
The buff is nice, to be able to take a trade is better, but a buff card should already theoretically give you a value trade option anyway, so the question is whether a deathrattle 2/2 for 3 mana is good. My take is that its not. Or at least we'd have to have a sticky 2 drop to make this work.
Hungry Hungry Murloc: Just put Mutanus the Devourer in your decks, maybe while you're grinding out other achievements. He's a very solid card, so it's not like this is a problem or anything.
Adventure is Out There: Summon 100 adventurers. Irrelevant, this is basically a prerequisite for...
Friends Like Me: *ahem* FUCK THIS ACHIEVEMENT. Like I said earlier, it's less than a 1% chance to get this achievement when casting Party Up! What I did was use a stall n' heal Paladin deck in Wild, with a lot of draw mixed in: AAEBAZ8FBv37AqCAA86HA9D3A7aKBJegBAycAtn+As+GA+yGA9KKA5asA8rBA8vNA5jqA8zrA/7sA+yfBAA= You may want to consider using cards like Lorekeeper Polkelt or Lord Barov in this deck as well. Combined with HS Deck Tracker flashing my taskbar when my turn started, I could play while doing something else, since you barely have to pay attention to what your opponent is doing anyways. Just draw and play both copies of Party Up! (it helps that adventurers can have rush or taunt to minimize the tempo hit) and if you play both copies, concede immediately and start a new match. There may be something to generating more copies of Party Up! in one match but I feel like this is consistent and faster. Did I mention this took me 123 matches? If you haven't done the original Barrens achievements, this seems like a good place to grind out some of the othe neutral ones as well.
Tormented Hearts: Not as bad as it seems, just 14 matches with my standard deck. Taintheart Tormenter is a huge body that requires an answer and so you will naturally cash in spells if you play it on a relatively empty board. Raging Felscreamer helps you get it out on tempo. Lots of heal and stall and draw. Deck: AAECAea5AwbO0gP21gOoigS2igSXoATsoAQM+84DzdIDh9QD9eMDmOoD/u0DoO4Dg58E1J8EoaAEsaAEtKAEAA==
Puppy Power: So yeah, Celestial Alignment counts for this, which makes it pretty trivial and quick. I just threw together this wild deck with Alignment and some big defensive Druid beasts like Winged Guardian, Umbral Owl, and Grizzled Guardian. Only 4 matches: AAEBAZICBIvmAtaZA9ulA7XsAw1f6QGHzgKe0gK/8gKP9gL/tQPougPe0QPw1AOJ4AOV4APA7AMA
Poison, Poisoff / Hiding in Plain Sight: Rogue already has plenty of Poisonous beasts and weapons, so why not go for a 2-for-1? Just a crappy wild Rogue deck with draw, poison stuff, and Shroud of Concealment. You'll destroy your health total killing minions each turn with your poison weapon, but who cares? 11 matches for both achievements at once: AAEBAaIHAsfOA5egBA6cAsIW5sIC6sYCmqkDzrkD590DqesDq+sD/u4DkZ8E958EoaAE3aAEAA==
Even Steven: This one is super easy! All you need to do is play Mad Summoner followed by Against All Odds on a somewhat empty board. That combo is 11 mana, but it's pretty trivial to get a 1 mana discount on either card with Emperor Thaurissan or Palm Reading. Only took me 1 game: AAEBAa0GBNYR9tYDl6AEoaAEDZwC5QTYwQLWnQOZqQPi3gP73wPK4QP44wPy7gPz7gOtigSFnwQA
Spit Hot Fire: My good friend Mad Summoner returns to ensure you have plenty of Perpetual Flame targets! The rest of the deck is just draw, stall, clear. You can also make use of Imprisoned Phoenix or Bloodmage Thalnos for spell damage. And it's a hilarious power move to fill your opponent's board with 1/1s, just to destroy them while overloading yourself for 7 mana. Watch your opponent's reactions while you complete this! 7 matches: AAEBAaoIAu0F9tYDDpwCsgbSE/a9AofEAvPnAtadA/DUA4fkA5LkA/rsA+PuA/2fBKGgBAA=
Ugh, It's MY Life, Mom: I actually did this while playing Stealer of Souls + Plot Twist shenanigans in Wild so I can't help you now that it's BANNED, sorry. There's probably a deck that lets you grind this out fairly quickly while killing yourself.
Don't Move a Muscle: This one was pretty funny, there's nothing in this wild deck to let you win games but you can almost always keep matches completely frozen and locked down at all times and keep yourself at 30 all the way until fatigue. Remember to always prioritize freezing stuff with your elementals instead of with your spells: AAEBAf0EApvTAvOvAw6WBZfBAtTOAp+YA7a2A97EA8fOA5HhA9LsA4jtA5vwA8HwA/+eBMOgBAA=
Kresh Got Back: The last achievement I did, I found this one to be mainly annoying. There isn't really a good way to speed it up, so matches tend to take pretty long as you have to draw Kresh, Lord of Turtling, then he has to die, then you have to spend five turns attacking. Since there isn't a strat to make it go faster I opted for a standard deck since the lower power level makes it much easier to last that many turns doing very little. Deck is based around drawing and generating massive amounts of armor while maintaining board presence to ensure survivability: AAECAQcE9tYDj+8DqIoEl6AEDc2+A/bCA4DkA5LkA5jqA9XxA6afBIagBIegBImgBKGgBNagBO2gBAA=
Malfurion is missing an growling after-effect like Fandral and Rag does. Not gonna lie, kinda hate that they make alts of the Basic Heroes that replace who they should've put instead. EX. Headless Horseman Uther should've been Sir Thomas' Horseman, and Malfurion should've been Fandral since it seems like Malfurion actually took Fandral's spot as Rag's Majordomo.
The fact that this has tradable, and as such can be shuffled away when facing a deck that doesn't run weapons, is the only edge it has over Ooze, but that edge is just perfect for a tech card.
Its not really a big deal. Most decks can just slot in Noz simply for the quest completion. Honestly, if there was a good chance to getting Noz to actually proct, most aggro-midrange decks would run him. Its only because of consistency that Noz never gets any love anywhere...until the next 15th anyway
Played rush warrior, went unfavorable against nzoth priest
My opponent played 5x Wave of Apathy, 2x Soul Mirror, soul mirrored my Tresh despite me playing around it all day he happened to discover one at that exact moment, healed up to full from 10 health once, ate my Nzoth via his Mutanus, and my Alex was at the bottom 8 of my cards (had I drawn it I would have won twice over)
This, my friends, is why everyone hates priest.
And this is also why it feels so good when you still managed the win despite all the bs.
You either have a decent sized AoE that's early enough to help survive against aggro or a 1 mana draw a card. Either way, Tradeable as a mechanic is just very strong thanks to the keyword's insane flexibility and all cards, even the more mediocre looking ones, can be considered as options for decks.
Priest can go hard into the late game and they tend to use small value oriented minions that can enjoy and extra buttload of stats. It's not a great card to add to decks, but with all the generation priests have access to, I believe we'll end up seeing a lot of this card.
The way T5 talked about this Questline in the reveal video makes me believe that there is good support for this card. Of the top of my head, some sort of minion that damages you on the battlecry but heals you on the deathrattle.
Because if there isn't, my god is this bad. Even Neeru-lock would have to include a self damage package reducing the options of the deck while having to survive on essentially 15 HP AND spend an extra 5 mana just to prevent fatigue damage.
PS: Btw, if Blightborn Tamsin does prevent fatigue, then that's yet another way for control warlock to counter other control decks while being somehow even weaker to aggro.
Thank you for uploading these! Ever since the standard for portraits changed, I always want to know if the voicelines are desirable enough for the portrait, but it's always so difficult to find someone showcasing them.
Here's to hopefully more datamined voiceline videos from Out of Cards!
Hearthstone's Battlegrounds Gets a New Hero and Minion, Rebalancing, Future Minion and Tribe Overhaul
Replacing the one-and-only True Bartender Bob is such a blasphemous idea, Ragnaros ought to burn for this. Umm, burn even more that is.
It took them a long while, but it's good they can finally start exploring all those cosmetics options for Battlegrounds.
New Neutral Minion - Mailbox Dancer
Cards that give the other player stuff is nearly never played, unless they have a really good niche. And this one actually has it.
Coin is incredible powerful, more so if your deck is made to take full advantage of it. Rogue and druid decks for example uses coin better than any other class. The card also essentially innervate you first, so this is in effect a 1 mana 3/2. I wouldn't drop this card immediately, but admitably giving your opponent coin might just be too scary to imagine.
Hearthstone Patch 20.8 Hero Skin Voiceline Previews and Interactions for Ragnaros, Lady Katrana Prestor, and More!
I see us doing them going forward =)
I'd like to do some more database-oriented stuff to make it more useful to know what skins have and dont have too because its clear Blizzard is not slowing down the skin train!
New Warlock Weapon - Runed Mithril Rod
Its probably not as good as most people would think it is.
The cost reduction is insane. The method of which this is gained is not. Firstly you need to drop 3 mana do nothing for a turn. Then you need to actually manage 4 card draw, which in standard is not really easy to do. Then this would have to dodge weapon tech, and since Rustrot Viper is an actual insane card this will simply never see the light of day.
At very best you play this on turn 7, draw 3 with Backfire and complete the circle with a tradable card or just plain hp on 8. In nearly all scenarios, it sucks.
But of course, team5 often dont print cards for nothing so there might be something around the lines of like 2 mana draw 4, discard 2. Maybe, just maybe this card can justify its weight then. But until there is a reliable and cheap way to draw cards for warlock, this card is just a maybe at best, trash at worst.
Hearthstone's Fire Festival Returns Next Week - 7 Legendary Quests, Brawls, Firelands Hero Bundle
As somebody who buys all the hero portraits, preparing for the day when Blizzard finally adds the "Random Hero" option, it's actually quite nice to see some released I won't have to buy, for once, since I don't play Battlegrounds.
Stormwind Pre-Order
I think the delay on mercs probably fudged a lot of their plans. I don't work for Blizzard so I wouldn't know, but it feels like they've gone back on a lot of things that they said they'd do on their roadmap because mercs is taking a while. It could also be that they're trying to sweep the delay under the rug by covering it up with other stuff like BG skins. That said, I'm not complaining; I'm perfectly happy to wait for a new gamemode so that it can be as polished as possible (Sonic 06 taught me this the hard way).
New Warrior Spell - Heavy Plate
8 health for 3 mana is just about standard for a healing card. But with the option to throw this back for another card is what really makes this card work. At least in control warrior anyway.
Its probably the weakest tradable card yet, but control warrior needs armor and this one provides. With the added option to just throw this back into the deck against other control decks for a card (and still not lose the fatigue war) is really icing on the cake.
New Mage Spell - Fire Sale
As mentioned by myself in several other 'tradable' card discussions: anything with the tradeable keyword is an instant 4 stars and up.
And this one is no different. Yes, its rather expensive to deal 3 damage to everything (poor Hellfire can't get a break) but with the option to basically mulligan this back for another card means this card will almost never be irrelevant. If its too expensive, bad, or not viable just trade it for another. The only true drawback of this card is that you'll have to actually put it in your deck.
New Priest Spell - Elekk Mount
This card is certainly interesting because its basically a stronger Spikeridged Steed and in a class where card discounting is relevant.
But it suffers from the fact that it requires priest to actually stick minions on board, which is an ask for a class that barely plays for tempo.
Still, this card absolutely crushes aggro decks, and without a silence will likely slow the game so much against midrange that priest simply wins from there. I take it that the Elekk is a beast as well (because why wouldn't it be) so that's one more reason to run it. For that reason this one gets high marks from me, but taken down a peg because priest is not really a class that plays for tempo.
New Hunter Spell - Ramming Mount
Its a buff card in hunter so its inevitably going to be compared to cards like Don't Feed the Animals and the much stronger Dire Frenzy. The fact that neither has seen any play currently means this card has such a massive mountain of a climb to be viable.
The buff is nice, to be able to take a trade is better, but a buff card should already theoretically give you a value trade option anyway, so the question is whether a deathrattle 2/2 for 3 mana is good. My take is that its not. Or at least we'd have to have a sticky 2 drop to make this work.
Achievement Hunting: Forged in the Barrens edition
Wailing Caverns Achievement Guide
Hungry Hungry Murloc: Just put Mutanus the Devourer in your decks, maybe while you're grinding out other achievements. He's a very solid card, so it's not like this is a problem or anything.
Adventure is Out There: Summon 100 adventurers. Irrelevant, this is basically a prerequisite for...
Friends Like Me: *ahem* FUCK THIS ACHIEVEMENT. Like I said earlier, it's less than a 1% chance to get this achievement when casting Party Up! What I did was use a stall n' heal Paladin deck in Wild, with a lot of draw mixed in: AAEBAZ8FBv37AqCAA86HA9D3A7aKBJegBAycAtn+As+GA+yGA9KKA5asA8rBA8vNA5jqA8zrA/7sA+yfBAA= You may want to consider using cards like Lorekeeper Polkelt or Lord Barov in this deck as well. Combined with HS Deck Tracker flashing my taskbar when my turn started, I could play while doing something else, since you barely have to pay attention to what your opponent is doing anyways. Just draw and play both copies of Party Up! (it helps that adventurers can have rush or taunt to minimize the tempo hit) and if you play both copies, concede immediately and start a new match. There may be something to generating more copies of Party Up! in one match but I feel like this is consistent and faster. Did I mention this took me 123 matches? If you haven't done the original Barrens achievements, this seems like a good place to grind out some of the othe neutral ones as well.
Tormented Hearts: Not as bad as it seems, just 14 matches with my standard deck. Taintheart Tormenter is a huge body that requires an answer and so you will naturally cash in spells if you play it on a relatively empty board. Raging Felscreamer helps you get it out on tempo. Lots of heal and stall and draw. Deck: AAECAea5AwbO0gP21gOoigS2igSXoATsoAQM+84DzdIDh9QD9eMDmOoD/u0DoO4Dg58E1J8EoaAEsaAEtKAEAA==
Puppy Power: So yeah, Celestial Alignment counts for this, which makes it pretty trivial and quick. I just threw together this wild deck with Alignment and some big defensive Druid beasts like Winged Guardian, Umbral Owl, and Grizzled Guardian. Only 4 matches: AAEBAZICBIvmAtaZA9ulA7XsAw1f6QGHzgKe0gK/8gKP9gL/tQPougPe0QPw1AOJ4AOV4APA7AMA
Poison, Poisoff / Hiding in Plain Sight: Rogue already has plenty of Poisonous beasts and weapons, so why not go for a 2-for-1? Just a crappy wild Rogue deck with draw, poison stuff, and Shroud of Concealment. You'll destroy your health total killing minions each turn with your poison weapon, but who cares? 11 matches for both achievements at once: AAEBAaIHAsfOA5egBA6cAsIW5sIC6sYCmqkDzrkD590DqesDq+sD/u4DkZ8E958EoaAE3aAEAA==
Even Steven: This one is super easy! All you need to do is play Mad Summoner followed by Against All Odds on a somewhat empty board. That combo is 11 mana, but it's pretty trivial to get a 1 mana discount on either card with Emperor Thaurissan or Palm Reading. Only took me 1 game: AAEBAa0GBNYR9tYDl6AEoaAEDZwC5QTYwQLWnQOZqQPi3gP73wPK4QP44wPy7gPz7gOtigSFnwQA
Spit Hot Fire: My good friend Mad Summoner returns to ensure you have plenty of Perpetual Flame targets! The rest of the deck is just draw, stall, clear. You can also make use of Imprisoned Phoenix or Bloodmage Thalnos for spell damage. And it's a hilarious power move to fill your opponent's board with 1/1s, just to destroy them while overloading yourself for 7 mana. Watch your opponent's reactions while you complete this! 7 matches: AAEBAaoIAu0F9tYDDpwCsgbSE/a9AofEAvPnAtadA/DUA4fkA5LkA/rsA+PuA/2fBKGgBAA=
Ugh, It's MY Life, Mom: I actually did this while playing Stealer of Souls + Plot Twist shenanigans in Wild so I can't help you now that it's BANNED, sorry. There's probably a deck that lets you grind this out fairly quickly while killing yourself.
Don't Move a Muscle: This one was pretty funny, there's nothing in this wild deck to let you win games but you can almost always keep matches completely frozen and locked down at all times and keep yourself at 30 all the way until fatigue. Remember to always prioritize freezing stuff with your elementals instead of with your spells: AAEBAf0EApvTAvOvAw6WBZfBAtTOAp+YA7a2A97EA8fOA5HhA9LsA4jtA5vwA8HwA/+eBMOgBAA=
Kresh Got Back: The last achievement I did, I found this one to be mainly annoying. There isn't really a good way to speed it up, so matches tend to take pretty long as you have to draw Kresh, Lord of Turtling, then he has to die, then you have to spend five turns attacking. Since there isn't a strat to make it go faster I opted for a standard deck since the lower power level makes it much easier to last that many turns doing very little. Deck is based around drawing and generating massive amounts of armor while maintaining board presence to ensure survivability: AAECAQcE9tYDj+8DqIoEl6AEDc2+A/bCA4DkA5LkA5jqA9XxA6afBIagBIegBImgBKGgBNagBO2gBAA=
Nozdormu Day Finally Gets an In-Game Quest! Rewards 1500 Rewards Track XP
At last!
Hearthstone Patch 20.8 Hero Skin Voiceline Previews and Interactions for Ragnaros, Lady Katrana Prestor, and More!
Malfurion is missing an growling after-effect like Fandral and Rag does. Not gonna lie, kinda hate that they make alts of the Basic Heroes that replace who they should've put instead. EX. Headless Horseman Uther should've been Sir Thomas' Horseman, and Malfurion should've been Fandral since it seems like Malfurion actually took Fandral's spot as Rag's Majordomo.
New Neutral Minion - Rustrot Viper
The fact that this has tradable, and as such can be shuffled away when facing a deck that doesn't run weapons, is the only edge it has over Ooze, but that edge is just perfect for a tech card.
Nozdormu Day Finally Gets an In-Game Quest! Rewards 1500 Rewards Track XP
Its not really a big deal. Most decks can just slot in Noz simply for the quest completion. Honestly, if there was a good chance to getting Noz to actually proct, most aggro-midrange decks would run him. Its only because of consistency that Noz never gets any love anywhere...until the next 15th anyway
Hearthstone Patch 20.8 Hero Skin Voiceline Previews and Interactions for Ragnaros, Lady Katrana Prestor, and More!
Not going to lie, that ragnaros skin looks so hot I might have to actually break some personal rules just to get it.
Equally not going to lie, Prestor's skin looks like shit. And Guldan looks like someone just gave him a time out after not finishing his vegetables.
Hearthstone's Mercenaries Mode Will Release During Gryphon Phase 2, Before the Third Expansion
seeing them proudly displaying "Tavern Brawls" as a major key point makes me sad.
The Pepper Thread - Share Some Good Vibes!
Played rush warrior, went unfavorable against nzoth priest
My opponent played 5x Wave of Apathy, 2x Soul Mirror, soul mirrored my Tresh despite me playing around it all day he happened to discover one at that exact moment, healed up to full from 10 health once, ate my Nzoth via his Mutanus, and my Alex was at the bottom 8 of my cards (had I drawn it I would have won twice over)
This, my friends, is why everyone hates priest.
And this is also why it feels so good when you still managed the win despite all the bs.
[Game] Card Treasure Hunt (The Resurrection Attempt)
My Inner Child Screams Out.
Hit it!! And Then Take all We Can Eat
The Adult in Me Feels Doubt.
No, Run!! Or Be Shot Down in the Street
New Mage Spell - Fire Sale
You either have a decent sized AoE that's early enough to help survive against aggro or a 1 mana draw a card. Either way, Tradeable as a mechanic is just very strong thanks to the keyword's insane flexibility and all cards, even the more mediocre looking ones, can be considered as options for decks.
New Mage Spell - Fire Sale
Friendship ended with Combustion, now Fire Sale is my new best friend.
New Priest Spell - Elekk Mount
Priest can go hard into the late game and they tend to use small value oriented minions that can enjoy and extra buttload of stats. It's not a great card to add to decks, but with all the generation priests have access to, I believe we'll end up seeing a lot of this card.
Hearthstone's Fire Festival Returns Next Week - 7 Legendary Quests, Brawls, Firelands Hero Bundle
This might be the first time I spend money on cosmetics. These look so good!
New Warlock Spell - The Demon Seed
The way T5 talked about this Questline in the reveal video makes me believe that there is good support for this card. Of the top of my head, some sort of minion that damages you on the battlecry but heals you on the deathrattle.
Because if there isn't, my god is this bad. Even Neeru-lock would have to include a self damage package reducing the options of the deck while having to survive on essentially 15 HP AND spend an extra 5 mana just to prevent fatigue damage.
PS: Btw, if Blightborn Tamsin does prevent fatigue, then that's yet another way for control warlock to counter other control decks while being somehow even weaker to aggro.
Hearthstone Patch 20.8 Hero Skin Voiceline Previews and Interactions for Ragnaros, Lady Katrana Prestor, and More!
Thank you for uploading these! Ever since the standard for portraits changed, I always want to know if the voicelines are desirable enough for the portrait, but it's always so difficult to find someone showcasing them.
Here's to hopefully more datamined voiceline videos from Out of Cards!