I was hoping Twist would go more into the Tavern Brawl Block style where they had very limited card sets (5 max) and all random, like suggested with the random Twist. Add in some wacky rule each month and Twist would've been my main mode. I loved the first reason of the Wonders Format and playing Jade Rogue again reminded me just how much I missed the old (more balanced) Hearthstone. Unfortunately, as many ppl have mentioned, the implementation of Twist has felt like an after thought, especially with these 3 month long seasons with very little change. Guess we can blame Caverns of Time for such small changes. Also the obvious manipulation to milk every devoted player of their money/gold.
The main issue I feel that's gonna bury Twist is the marketing and timid implementation. Why can't the next season of Twist have Un'goro AND another rule like no duplicates or neutrals for example? Adding in an extra expansion and banning 1 card shouldn't count.
Also what site even displays any Twist meta decks? Seems more of a hassle now trying to find the best decks in the meta (even HSReplay don't have decks) The meta is already solved so there's no point in theorycrafting your own decks. Also on the EU servers, my queue times are 5 min+ so it's definitely already dead there :/
Overall, 100% agree with everything mentioned in the post and just hope Blizzard do some more crazy Twist rules like with Tavern Brawl.
Thanks for the hint! I'm really looking forward to diving back into the story. I've decided to skip through book 1 and 2 to refresh my memory before I start the third volume and I've spent like 2 hours + with the first one alone! There's just so much going on, so many cool scenes I wanted to revisit :-)
There’s no balancing and no expectation of balancing.
I don’t like having cards changed for a format that changes regularly.
If the season is broken, let be broken, some people like broken decks. Some people like hard countering broken deck. Let them have their fun
With Hearthstone in decline, there will be less and less resources to run a format. Just let it run itself and focus on Wild and Standard balance.
The cards are changed for all formats: Twist, Wild and Tavern Brawl. While Twist was the thing that triggered it, better balance across sets is an improvement in my opinion.
Much of Hearthstone's fun originates from slightly broken stuff. However, if something is extremely broken, the meta becomes stale within two days and then there are four boring weeks left in a season. Just look at how some Tavern Brawls devolve into games being decided by what deck you queue into or whether you go first or not; that happens within hours.
Blizzard seems to be determined to compensate for dwindling player numbers by trying to sell more to the remaining players. I don't think that is sustainable in the long run: neither for the players (there is a limit to how much people are willing or able to spend on a game) nor for themselves (creating all the new content and cosmetics).
Wow, the last rager was printed back in Darkmoon Faire. I guess we were past due for another one. I've noticed the more recent ones have come down in price too.
So kind of like a secret except your opponent knows exactly what it is. Random damage can hit stealth, right? I know aoe will. Either way, there are options to kill this without losing any of your minions.
I think you're onto something with the Historic Twist vs Random Twist approaches. Currently, the people who want to relive old metas are not getting what they want because of the buffs and new cards. Meanwhile, the people looking for new experiences are also not getting what they want because the format does not change quickly enough from month to month.
As someone who is much more interested in Random Twist, I don't mind the buffs. A lot of cards and archetypes in the old sets were unplayable even back in the day and it's nice that they get a second life. Also it will allow mixing old sets with new sets without the new sets always dominating the meta. However, I expect fans of Historic Twist to have a different opinion here.
I agree that monetization is holding Twist back: players without a Wild collection may skip the mode entirely because it's too expensive. And for those that do buy into it, Blizzard has to slow down rotation to not upset them.
They can't make the packs and pre-made decks super cheap, since then they'll be selling discount dust for Standard players to use (although the pre-made decks could be cheaper than they were without breaking the HS economy). Maybe a new type of set is needed, that is sold as a full set for a reasonable price, but is not disenchantable.
I'm going to guess that it will be too hard to create a deck loaded with enough high-cost cards to make this worth the risk to use it to destroy your opponent's cards.
I'm going to say this would be trash if it wasn't tradeable. But since it is, if you draw it before turn 6, you can just send it back. Then the next time you draw it, assuming it isn't too early, bam, 6 lifesteal damage wherever you need it.
There's nothing specifically wrong about it. You get a removal option when this dies, and this is a mere 1 drop, which can be plunked down on 1, always a good thing.
Will it see play outside of highlander, well that's a bit harder to judge. Id say that some aggro decks will play it, but otherwise its just going to be a highlander card. Most decks tend to be synergistic, and this card doesnt really do much of that aside from being discard fodder for one class.
This card will easily see play because its effect is persistent until triggered, and getting one extra spell is always good (except plagues, bombs etc.)
Its easier to list down decks that wouldn't at least consider this a card for inclusion, because its viability is near universal. The only point of contention being that this card is weak on tempo and the effect doesnt trigger until a card is drawn, i.e. a bit slow.
Its a decent card that'll replace itself with a useful taunt. But its real usefulness is in receiving dragons so its instantly a good card to consider in a dragon deck.
But its so vanilla, doing very little. You cant even play that taunt in the same turn just to fill your mana cost because for some reason this card only gives you one at the end of the turn, as opposed to being a battlecry. Why? Its not like its game breaking to just dish out two 1/2 taunts to your hand for 2 mana. it'll just a decent, if sometimes annoying card in competitive.
It'll see play because highlander. I doubt it'll appear in any other deck.
Its a long shot, but its very likely the one trump card you need in an elemental midrange deck.
Such a shame that there's so many elementals you'll likely never get the ones you want but for a chance at getting something like Kalimos, Primal Lord, or something along that vein, its worth playing this card anyway. Its not even badly stated, and comes at an acceptable mana cost.
Assuming that midrange elemental is not cack, this card will see play.
Tempowise, this card is excellent. You get two minions for the price of 3 mana, and both are likely to be pretty decent stats.
However, consistency is the main buggering thing. 3 mana cards aren't exactly very common, and if you miss out on the conditions, this card is just a brick in hand. In fact, its viability is very specifically being played on turn 3. Outside of that its quite shit, doing very little, and very inconsistent at that.
It looks great, practically Plot Twist on a stick.
But the question of course remains. Why'd you want a plot twist on a stick to begin with?
Plot twist itself was never played until the quest made it mandatory. In a way, we can already see what the win rate of this card would be, its going to be comparable to finley, and even then its mostly down to the 1 mana cost of the card. This card allows you to reroll for a card you may need but at 3 mana makes it nearly impossible to do anything after that.
Id say, just play finley. And after finley rotates, Id still avoid this card unless Im playing highlander specifically, and have a particular tin-foil ailment of my draws constantly screwing me.
For me, the main issue with the new cards is the large percentage of legendaries. I don't mind buying a few packs to get all the new commons and rares, but the amount of money/gold/dust it would cost to acquire even just a few of the new legendaries is just too much, especially since it's unclear how long those cards will remain usable. I agree that a mini set approach where you can just buy all the new cards for a reasonable price would be much better.
Cant for the life of me understand why this is a deathrattle. It would just be a decent card had it been a battlecry. Now, instead of a board wipe you're only threatening to unleash one, as well as giving your opponent the initiative of either silencing this or buffing their board beyond its reach.
Of course, if elementals are seeing play then this one gets in by sole virtue of it being support. But Id feel you can easily remove this and improve your win rate regardless.
Standard is only new once every 4 months. The mini-set and balance changes generally shake up the meta a bit, but they don't introduce fundamentally new decks. It's nice to have another mode to play when Standard gets stale or the meta is not to your liking.
Wild is not a place where you can play your old cards. The Wild decks are composed of the strongest and most synergistic cards plucked from all over Hearthstone's history (although more from recent sets, because of power creep). It's nice to have a place where you can play old archetypes, without getting slaughtered before you can summon C'thun or a Jade larger than 3/3.
In my opinion, the idea of Twist is good, but the execution has some issues.
Hard agree. Everyone knows Standard is what most people are playing, so give that a huge pool at the start of the month and you've got a better chance mid-month to have a big pool for Twist.
We get no warning, just like Tavern Brawl.
Again, this is where Blizzard has dropped the ball. Announcing rules in advance removes the surprise factor. Plus, it's not like if I find out Mean Streets of Gadgetzan is going to be a part of the new format I can go and start earnings their packs a week or two in advance - time doesn't matter here, I can buy the packs today or tomorrow, the results are the same.
Tavern Brawl rarely being a deckbuilding experience should have been something they learned from.
There’s no balancing and no expectation of balancing.
I understand that they want to help Wild out so you will sometimes see Twist getting changes because of it, but I do feel that the reason for most of Wild's balance changes were because they had Twist in mind.
No balancing is the correct move though. The format exists on a monthly rotation. If people figure it out within a couple of weeks, it's effectively already over anyway so let it ride out and let people return to Standard if they get sick of it. Like you said, people have fun in different ways, let them have fun. If there's something so stupidly overpowered that it's going to cause a day 1 problem, a ban is better than balancing cards. Balancing cards for a single month's format has longer-term problems.
Is Hearthstone's Twist Format a Failure?
I was hoping Twist would go more into the Tavern Brawl Block style where they had very limited card sets (5 max) and all random, like suggested with the random Twist. Add in some wacky rule each month and Twist would've been my main mode. I loved the first reason of the Wonders Format and playing Jade Rogue again reminded me just how much I missed the old (more balanced) Hearthstone. Unfortunately, as many ppl have mentioned, the implementation of Twist has felt like an after thought, especially with these 3 month long seasons with very little change. Guess we can blame Caverns of Time for such small changes. Also the obvious manipulation to milk every devoted player of their money/gold.
The main issue I feel that's gonna bury Twist is the marketing and timid implementation. Why can't the next season of Twist have Un'goro AND another rule like no duplicates or neutrals for example? Adding in an extra expansion and banning 1 card shouldn't count.
Also what site even displays any Twist meta decks? Seems more of a hassle now trying to find the best decks in the meta (even HSReplay don't have decks) The meta is already solved so there's no point in theorycrafting your own decks. Also on the EU servers, my queue times are 5 min+ so it's definitely already dead there :/
Overall, 100% agree with everything mentioned in the post and just hope Blizzard do some more crazy Twist rules like with Tavern Brawl.
Books
Thanks for the hint! I'm really looking forward to diving back into the story. I've decided to skip through book 1 and 2 to refresh my memory before I start the third volume and I've spent like 2 hours + with the first one alone! There's just so much going on, so many cool scenes I wanted to revisit :-)
New Neutral Minion - Miracle Salesman
So you get a 1 Mana draw, but then later on you risk drawing the snake oil instead of something that might help you. Pass.
New Neutral Minion - Cactus Rager
Creep on the all-powerful Duskboar.
Is Hearthstone's Twist Format a Failure?
Regarding your points 1-3, I either agree or don't have a strong opinion. About point 4:
New Neutral Minion - Cactus Rager
Wow, the last rager was printed back in Darkmoon Faire. I guess we were past due for another one. I've noticed the more recent ones have come down in price too.
New Neutral Minion - Saloon Brewmaster
I'd rather bounce something, like, Astalor Bloodsworn, but if it somehow gets Vicious Bloodworm to see play, then that's a win I guess haha
New Neutral Minion - Saloon Brewmaster
Well, there are some things this will work nice with. Vicious Bloodworm comes to mind.
New Neutral Minion - Gold Panner
Guaranteed to draw at least one card, so that makes it at least decent. Unlikely to draw more than that, though.
New Neutral Minion - Trapdoor Spider
Trapdoor Spider + The Jailer (whenever he returns) = The Meme Dream
Good? Doubtful. Funny? Yep!
New Neutral Minion - Trapdoor Spider
So kind of like a secret except your opponent knows exactly what it is. Random damage can hit stealth, right? I know aoe will. Either way, there are options to kill this without losing any of your minions.
Is Hearthstone's Twist Format a Failure?
I think you're onto something with the Historic Twist vs Random Twist approaches. Currently, the people who want to relive old metas are not getting what they want because of the buffs and new cards. Meanwhile, the people looking for new experiences are also not getting what they want because the format does not change quickly enough from month to month.
As someone who is much more interested in Random Twist, I don't mind the buffs. A lot of cards and archetypes in the old sets were unplayable even back in the day and it's nice that they get a second life. Also it will allow mixing old sets with new sets without the new sets always dominating the meta. However, I expect fans of Historic Twist to have a different opinion here.
I agree that monetization is holding Twist back: players without a Wild collection may skip the mode entirely because it's too expensive. And for those that do buy into it, Blizzard has to slow down rotation to not upset them.
They can't make the packs and pre-made decks super cheap, since then they'll be selling discount dust for Standard players to use (although the pre-made decks could be cheaper than they were without breaking the HS economy). Maybe a new type of set is needed, that is sold as a full set for a reasonable price, but is not disenchantable.
New Neutral Minion - Horseshoe Slinger
I guess if you're lucky you might kill two things, but given that you don't have control over the target, I expect this to be shit most times.
New Neutral Minion - High Noon Duelist
I'm going to guess that it will be too hard to create a deck loaded with enough high-cost cards to make this worth the risk to use it to destroy your opponent's cards.
New Neutral Minion - Sunspot Dragon
I'm going to say this would be trash if it wasn't tradeable. But since it is, if you draw it before turn 6, you can just send it back. Then the next time you draw it, assuming it isn't too early, bam, 6 lifesteal damage wherever you need it.
New Neutral Minion - Tram Mechanic
Its actually a well design card to be fair.
There's nothing specifically wrong about it. You get a removal option when this dies, and this is a mere 1 drop, which can be plunked down on 1, always a good thing.
Will it see play outside of highlander, well that's a bit harder to judge. Id say that some aggro decks will play it, but otherwise its just going to be a highlander card. Most decks tend to be synergistic, and this card doesnt really do much of that aside from being discard fodder for one class.
New Neutral Minion - Dryscale Deputy
This card will easily see play because its effect is persistent until triggered, and getting one extra spell is always good (except plagues, bombs etc.)
Its easier to list down decks that wouldn't at least consider this a card for inclusion, because its viability is near universal. The only point of contention being that this card is weak on tempo and the effect doesnt trigger until a card is drawn, i.e. a bit slow.
New Neutral Minion - Whelp Wrangler
Its a decent card that'll replace itself with a useful taunt. But its real usefulness is in receiving dragons so its instantly a good card to consider in a dragon deck.
But its so vanilla, doing very little. You cant even play that taunt in the same turn just to fill your mana cost because for some reason this card only gives you one at the end of the turn, as opposed to being a battlecry. Why? Its not like its game breaking to just dish out two 1/2 taunts to your hand for 2 mana. it'll just a decent, if sometimes annoying card in competitive.
It'll see play because highlander. I doubt it'll appear in any other deck.
New Neutral Minion - Eroded Sediment
Its a long shot, but its very likely the one trump card you need in an elemental midrange deck.
Such a shame that there's so many elementals you'll likely never get the ones you want but for a chance at getting something like Kalimos, Primal Lord, or something along that vein, its worth playing this card anyway. Its not even badly stated, and comes at an acceptable mana cost.
Assuming that midrange elemental is not cack, this card will see play.
New Neutral Minion - Linedance Partner
Tempowise, this card is excellent. You get two minions for the price of 3 mana, and both are likely to be pretty decent stats.
However, consistency is the main buggering thing. 3 mana cards aren't exactly very common, and if you miss out on the conditions, this card is just a brick in hand. In fact, its viability is very specifically being played on turn 3. Outside of that its quite shit, doing very little, and very inconsistent at that.
New Neutral Minion - Gaslight Gatekeeper
It looks great, practically Plot Twist on a stick.
But the question of course remains. Why'd you want a plot twist on a stick to begin with?
Plot twist itself was never played until the quest made it mandatory. In a way, we can already see what the win rate of this card would be, its going to be comparable to finley, and even then its mostly down to the 1 mana cost of the card. This card allows you to reroll for a card you may need but at 3 mana makes it nearly impossible to do anything after that.
Id say, just play finley. And after finley rotates, Id still avoid this card unless Im playing highlander specifically, and have a particular tin-foil ailment of my draws constantly screwing me.
Is Hearthstone's Twist Format a Failure?
For me, the main issue with the new cards is the large percentage of legendaries. I don't mind buying a few packs to get all the new commons and rares, but the amount of money/gold/dust it would cost to acquire even just a few of the new legendaries is just too much, especially since it's unclear how long those cards will remain usable. I agree that a mini set approach where you can just buy all the new cards for a reasonable price would be much better.
New Neutral Minion - Dang-Blasted Elemental
Its a poor card, even in an elemental deck.
Cant for the life of me understand why this is a deathrattle. It would just be a decent card had it been a battlecry. Now, instead of a board wipe you're only threatening to unleash one, as well as giving your opponent the initiative of either silencing this or buffing their board beyond its reach.
Of course, if elementals are seeing play then this one gets in by sole virtue of it being support. But Id feel you can easily remove this and improve your win rate regardless.
Is Hearthstone's Twist Format a Failure?
Standard is only new once every 4 months. The mini-set and balance changes generally shake up the meta a bit, but they don't introduce fundamentally new decks. It's nice to have another mode to play when Standard gets stale or the meta is not to your liking.
Wild is not a place where you can play your old cards. The Wild decks are composed of the strongest and most synergistic cards plucked from all over Hearthstone's history (although more from recent sets, because of power creep). It's nice to have a place where you can play old archetypes, without getting slaughtered before you can summon C'thun or a Jade larger than 3/3.
In my opinion, the idea of Twist is good, but the execution has some issues.
Is Hearthstone's Twist Format a Failure?
Hard agree. Everyone knows Standard is what most people are playing, so give that a huge pool at the start of the month and you've got a better chance mid-month to have a big pool for Twist.
Again, this is where Blizzard has dropped the ball. Announcing rules in advance removes the surprise factor. Plus, it's not like if I find out Mean Streets of Gadgetzan is going to be a part of the new format I can go and start earnings their packs a week or two in advance - time doesn't matter here, I can buy the packs today or tomorrow, the results are the same.
Tavern Brawl rarely being a deckbuilding experience should have been something they learned from.
I understand that they want to help Wild out so you will sometimes see Twist getting changes because of it, but I do feel that the reason for most of Wild's balance changes were because they had Twist in mind.
No balancing is the correct move though. The format exists on a monthly rotation. If people figure it out within a couple of weeks, it's effectively already over anyway so let it ride out and let people return to Standard if they get sick of it. Like you said, people have fun in different ways, let them have fun. If there's something so stupidly overpowered that it's going to cause a day 1 problem, a ban is better than balancing cards. Balancing cards for a single month's format has longer-term problems.