All Comments

Predicting that we might see towers next expansion, since we'll be likely venturing in Alliance zones, I think this could be a cool (but hopefully not too strong effect) for a Mage Tower minion.

Edit: Thank you for the feedback, lowered the mana cost to (4) from (5) and attack and health to (4)/(6) from (5)/(7).

Quote From Sykomyke

Hot Take:  Lunacy is *popular* for sure, but isn't actually winning matches at a statistically higher rate than other decks have in the past.  If you look at the stats for the past few expansion releases, you'll see other decks had HIGHER winrates than No-Minion/Lunacy mage.

Yes, I enjoy no-minion mage, but even with a turn 2 Deck of Lunacy play, there's no guarantee the deck will win.  Sure it's favored to win, but saying "if you play deck of lunacy on turn 2, your chances go up" is the same exact thing that happened back in the KOTFT meta with Prince Kelesth Rogues.  The deck could still win without Prince 2 on turn 2.  But if he was played (and they had shadowsteps) then the chances of the rogue winning went up dramatically.

I was playing a no minion mage earlier today against a Druid.  A tree/token druid.  Watch the replay.  By turn 7 I was down to 4 health.  If I was playing ANY OTHER DECK other than Lunacy Mage, I would have lost 100%.  

https://hsreplay.net/replay/ZfE5dpF2dRXXVyT4vzobWn

Yet, people are saying that Lunacy is a problem?  Why is it ok for tree/token druid to be able to generate that much threat/damage but mage can't?  I'm ok with balance changes, I'm even ok with people going "I don't like facing this deck" (trust me, I'm the same way about Tickatus).  But why is it fair for "aggro" decks to ALWAYS be strong in metas, but the one time a no-minion control mage deck gets popular everyone cries for nerfs?  

What exactly is the problem with a control deck ACTUALLY having a foothold in the first week of the meta? I know this sounds like a gripe, but this is the FIRST TIME in an expansion release that I didn't get overwhelmed with yet another damn aggro/smorc Hunter deck.  IT was *SO* refreshing to be able to play games and actually feel like there was play and counterplay by both sides instead of just "me hunter, me go face" at the beginning of every expansion.

So I repeat.  What exactly is the problem people have with a control deck ACTUALLY being good in the first week of an expansion?  And one that isn't even consistent.  I've had so many games where lunacy bricked and gave me *TOO* much draw to the point that half the cards in my hand were draw that I couldn't use or do anything with cause my deck only had 2 cards left.  I get that it's a "crazy" RNG deck, but isn't that the point?  Yes, it's gonna have crazy wins, but it has crazy losses too.  You just never see them because when you win against a lunacy mage, you usually have no idea what crappy cards he/she ended up getting.

Thanks for listening and will answer replies when I can.

Yes Deck of Lunacy by itself is inflating No minion mage numbers way higher than it should be which is why I don't see any other mage cards getting nerfed after lunacy until further investigation after lunacy nerf.

No minion mage is the best deck in legend right now. It looks bad because so many people are playing it including bad players who some aren't building the deck accurately. 

Lunacy is definitely the main problem 100% to question that is moronic. Literally every pro player wants it nerfed, it's game breaking like release DH.

Though I do think Token Druid will be a Tier 1 deck after nerfs if not the best deck.

Very serious proposed nerf to Pen Flinger:

Taliyah is horrible, there is no need to look for another explanation. We hope that in the next patch they will buff it.

I am hoping it's a health nerf, down to 3 so that it's still effective but can be removed easier. If they increase the mana cost to 3 I think it makes it a lot worse. Bad enough to drop the whole package.

This really isn't a hot take as it's pretty known among the better players that paladin is the deck with the oppressive win-rate. Mage's winrate is 'just' tier 1 but ridiculously overplayed for some reason.

The reason why it's a problem is exactly as you described. Because it has a card that boosts its winrate to toxic levels if played early, much like Keleseth. Nothing wrong with the deck being strong, if it's got counters, which it does, and doesn't generally rely so heavily on drawing a single card.

And then there's the fact that people are turned away from the game simply because once every three games they'll face a mage. Even if the deck isn't the strongest, the fact that it has made standard this boring while we're only a week in isn't healthy for the game. We've had a similar scenario with Barnes in wild a few years ago. The deck's nerf is justified, even if it's not a meta tyrant.

Watch Posts I honestly do not feel bad about facing. First time in a *long* time did I have fun playing with or against them. Yeah, there is that Death and Taxes Pally in Wild, now(I faced it once, but forget if I won or lost). But, nope. Still don't really see a problem with them.

The watch posts are one of the better things to come out of FitB imo. In before they nerf the 2 mana card making the whole package kinda redundant (let's face it, its tower on turn one/two thats the "problem") and therefore not giving the dust refund for Kargal as per usual...

Pen Flinger can die in a fire. Not because it's super strong but it's agonizing to watch it being played.

Interesting note

Scabbs joined SI:7 during a difficult time for Stormwind. King Varian has gone missing. Calls for help from Redridge and Darkshire go unanswered. A glowing object explodes in the sky, raining shards of light across the land. A concerned member of the royal court has hired several mercenaries to search for these shards of light.

This section for Scabbs is a direct reference to the actions of Lady Katrana Prestor in classic WoW. Lady Katrana Prestor is perhaps better known as Onyxia and likely one of the two dragons mentioned in Bru'kans vision. I wouldnt be surprised if she's also Tamsin's benefactor.

Onyxia would also make sense if Team5 is pushing a "Classic WoW" feel for this years expansions, whats more classic wow than Moar DoTs! Many Whelps, handle it!

Quote From Wailor

Okay, I did an even more nerfed version of my card, since it's true it was a bit busted even as a 4/3/3.

 

.

The Mortar Team was the siege unit for the Alliance in Warcraft III, fulfilling a the same role as Demolisher did for the Horde or Meat Wagon for the Undead. This kind of units used long ranged, AoE attacks which excelled at damaging buildings, but had a hard time hitting moving targets and were completely helpless against melee units, since they couldn't shot too close to themselves. That's why they fit so well for this "Can't attack" thingy, IMO.

If it was completely defenseless against melee targets it should have zero attac

Quote From PainlessSteel

How does something that a person does in real life affect his rights to participate in a computer game tournament? 

Here's the rule (6.1.15) -

"Engaging in any act that, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damage’s Blizzard image will result in removal from Grandmasters and reduction of the player’s prize total to $0 USD, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard’s Website Terms."

It's also worth recognising that no one has a "right to participate in a computer game tournament" - you get the invite from Blizzard if you meet their eligibility requirements, and you lose the invite when you don't.

Final results:

• Hard Run Attempt #1: Failed at Spiders
• Hard Run Attempt #2: Success! (Sivir + lots of landmarks and draw)
• Heroic Run Attempt #1: Failed at Thresh (Zed)
• Heroic Run Attempt #2: Failed at Mistwraiths (Quinn) 

Quote From dapperdog

The changes are probably hitting stealth rogue since its basically the old version from scholomance and team5 already said many times they prefer things to move on.

I doubt the watchposts would be hit at all. All three play specific functions. Its no coincidence that we're seeing more Far Watch Post now since mage can't really destroy this thing outside of Devolving Missiles, which they don't mulligan for anyway. After the nerf, I'd expect Mor'shan Watch Post to be more prominent instead.

That paladin nerf is likely to be Sword of the Fallen, although I wouldn't be too surprised to see Libram of Hope upped 1 mana, or Aldor Attendant becoming a 2 drop again. To be honest, hitting the librams would be the smarter choice in my opinion.

sword of fallen would be good nerf, aldor/libram No.

I am sure they are already aware of her being really weak.

As a non english speaker... I was confused as fuck about who were "they". Literally tought there were 3 of them and he had some multiple personality or something. I don't like that people get offended because we don't have a neutral gender like germans do... they literally want to change the language to something that doesn't work so they can feel offended if someone else doesn't understand it. "IT" was already the neutral genderless thing to use if they wanted to use something.

Nerf Predictions:

Balance Flinger

Deck of Balance

Sword of the Balanced

Far Balance Post

Balanced Barov

Libram of Balance

I agree with the OP, Lord Jaraxxus is gonna be a real problem in the future. Warlock has some pretty good control tools already to help them survive against aggro like Drain Soul, School Spirits, Hysteria, and Cascading Disaster. Against other archetypes, they have two absolute control-killers in Lord Jaraxxus and Tickatus, and a great value-generating card in Tamsin Roame. They'll only be susceptible to burn decks. Warlock might be annoying to face once the current meta tyrants are nerfed.

I expect Lord Jaraxxus to be changed if Control Warlock becomes too oppressive, it's just way too overtuned now that it's a simple hero card. The downside of having only 15 health in exchange for a ridiculous 3/8 weapon and infinite 6/6 infernals for 2 mana is gone, so it might simply be too powerful if the meta slows down. 

Well, today I learned of the insanity that comes with these connections. If, as a fellow elderly internet denizen, it yells at you for trying to use a 'brand account', apparently they made all of our original accounts unable to work with this system. You have to swap to the old Google+ account they forced on us to make this work.

Will some of these art be made available as hero portraits in the upcoming tavern passes? I don't know how to feel about that since it spoils the surprise, but some of those would look awesome as hero portraits. The Bru'kan ones are awesome (Alex Horley remains the best Hearthstone artist out there), though the second one with him holding a chicken drumstick is just...weird? What the hell is that

Except priest doesn't have much stealing or generation right now. Sethekk Veilweaver and Skeletal Dragon are the only generation engines. Psychic Conjurer and Mindrender Illucia are the only steal/copy effects. 

Compared to the Galakrond days, there is a real chance that a control priest could gas out.

Mage has best winrate in high legend.

He's just standing there...MENACINGLY!