This is a weird card. The stats/cost combo make you want it to be an evolve target, but the effect makes you not want to evolve the board. I don't know about this one.
I think this is a tech card against draw heavy decks. Even then it usually doesn't hit an important card, just a card that is being pulled to get you closer to the important cards.
This probably doesn't trigger Hanar, so I'm not sure this becomes a thing. Secret Rogue almost always wants the value from Hanar because otherwise their secrets aren't as impactful.
They like cards that have a low power level but can have some devastating effects. (Tickatus)
If Mindrender Illucia is the top card in the meta, they've screwed up at the power level aspect of fun.
No timetable on when some older cards like Lord Jaraxxus might be updated to a newer mechanic, but they have done some work on it.
Mini Sets
4 months between game updates is too long which is why they're doing mini sets.
Doom in the Tomb was a chance to try a mid-expansion meta swing but it wasn't big enough.
"Mini-sets are unlikely to introduce a wacky new keyword like a set is, and when they do we'll try and peel back complexity from the set before/after."
I would like to see that with each "year of" cycles they do, they focus more on one type of ability. For example Year of the Mammoth sets focused on Discover, or Year of the Funky Chicken focuses on Insight where all of the set and mini-sets expand on the ability. I like that we have so many options with having a new ability every 4 months. However, Insight was quoted as being a great idea, but not really pushed as a great game mechanic.
Not doubting the R&D abilities to come up with new game mechanics for every 4 months, but having a few sets to really focus on a mechanic feels like it could really do wonders. A perfect recent example of this was the lackey engine that persisted through a number of expansions. It was/is a really cool mechanic that was awesome for the initial set. The fact that there was lasting support to expand on it for a number of sets made it more fun to splash it into decks, or even create a whole deck around that mechanic. And since Dean hints at deck creation later in the article, this seems to flow for that.
This is a fun little card. I think I'm going to play around with it in a Stealth Rogue style deck. The weapon will corrupt it and you usually have a minion on board to target the attack buff. Looks llike fun.
I want this card to be good. The corrupt mechanic is a cool idea that hasn't turned out well yet. I just hope the Priest+neutral corrupt cards package makes for a viable deck.
I like this card. It is flexible for single target and mass removal options. There are also some interesting possibilities with healing and other 'on attack' conditions. This should make for some fun plays.
I hope this card is too slow for play. Libram Paladin already has annoying heals this will just make it more frustrating. Hopefully there just isn;t room in the deck to put this card in.
This needs a new style of paladin to make it worthwhile. If Paladin gets a good 1-2-3 curve of minions going that are also worth bringing back all at once, this becomes a great card. I just don't know what that combo would be.
If this becomes a playable card it will require careful planning on when to play it so that the spellburst is most effective. You will need to play all but one of the single target freeze effects (or trigger the minion attacks), then play this card, and then play the final spell to set it all off. If you are comboing it with Frost Nova or Blizzard, it won't be as tricky. I wonder how well it works since you would want to bank up a few freeze effects for maximum spellburst damage. But how many can you afford to save if you build your deck around those?
This is an interesting combination of keywords. I think it will require some planning of setting up lethal later. Being able to use mana biscuit at some point to further bank mana will let you do some interesting burst damage on the awaken turn.
Another shot card but this one doesn't look to be usable right now. I don't think Hunters want to slot a card in for token control.They want cards to go Face.
I don't think this fits with many Hunter playstyles. They don't usually want to generate random cards, even if it is limited to the beast tribe. You would want to play this with at least one other beast in hand that is also playable that turn but there is no guarantee that you coninue to get playable cards. I'll be surprised if this makes it in a competitive deck.
Yup! Sometimes lore stuff doesn't get launched immediately on the main page because it is more "filler" style content (and its been a damn busy month so far). The goal is that everything is eventually promoted there though so it doesn't get missed.
Also, if you love the lore posts and want to see when they are published, we'll have a follow feature coming on the site soon (we'll have a front-page post when it goes live) so you can follow Goliath to get notifications when new lore guides are published (and any other content he ends up writing).
I think it can work to make a final board push in a token druid deck. This is probably the top end of what that deck would like to run. Does the deck have enough other pieces to make it work though?
I think this one will be very polar in its use. Most of us who don't have the encyclopediac knowledge of the different cards and their costs will not be able to play this at the appropriate time to get what we really want. The true hardcore guys will absolutely use this card well. It is still going to be RNG if you are offered the card you want, but I think it can be good.
I hope this acts like discover to add different spells that you didn't include in the main deck. It would give some potential situational flexibility. I think this will do some work in better enabling the spell damage/burst shaman archetype. I'm not sure where it fits in the druid game plan though.
I like that there are new corrupt cards. I just hope that it makes the archetye playable. The new versions of the Old Gods just don't seem impactful on the meta.
The attack restriction is mostly trivial. I know I'm not great at deck building and recognizing interatctions, but I don't see a deck that wouldn't use this. It is over statted and is tough to remove.
I've preordered every expansion, and I don't understand what you're on about. Dean's talking about the fact that, no matter what you spend ($10 on packs or $80) there's a bigger barrier to having fun with your purchase than other games because now you have to figure out what decks to make to use the cards you bought.
That's a totally separate issue from "Does the $80 preorder give you enough legendaries" -- for me, I've always thought it's perfectly fine. It's a fun puzzle to play some experimental decks in the first few weeks of the expansion, and having at least a little bit of scarcity is an interesting challenge for me to solve.
It's a bit difficult for me to comment on because I always knew it was there, so of course it was obvious to me, but surely you must have noticed the tabs stick around when building a deck and were thinking 'I wish I could choose a hero for this deck'?
No judgement here, I'm just curious.
Hearthstone does not have an intuitive interface. The whole thing is a bit weird. When I first started, there were all sorts of things that I expected to find that aren't there. Or maybe they are! After a while I just gave up. So, to me, it is not surprising that there are things I missed.
Here's another one. I don't really keep that careful track of my card collection. Sometimes I see a deck and what I want to do is grab the deck code into Hearthstone, and when it shows me that I'm missing lots of expensive cards, I just want to delete it. But I can't. I have click 'done', accept that I don't want to auto-complete it, then click delete and confirm. Did I miss something there too?
New Shaman Minion - Mistrunner
This is a weird card. The stats/cost combo make you want it to be an evolve target, but the effect makes you not want to evolve the board. I don't know about this one.
New Rogue Spell - Shenanigans
I think this is a tech card against draw heavy decks. Even then it usually doesn't hit an important card, just a card that is being pulled to get you closer to the important cards.
New Rogue Minion - Sparkjoy Cheat
This probably doesn't trigger Hanar, so I'm not sure this becomes a thing. Secret Rogue almost always wants the value from Hanar because otherwise their secrets aren't as impactful.
Dean Ayala's Community Q&A #2 - More New Modes Confirmed, Profiles, Mini Sets, Arena, Wild, and More!
I would like to see that with each "year of" cycles they do, they focus more on one type of ability. For example Year of the Mammoth sets focused on Discover, or Year of the Funky Chicken focuses on Insight where all of the set and mini-sets expand on the ability. I like that we have so many options with having a new ability every 4 months. However, Insight was quoted as being a great idea, but not really pushed as a great game mechanic.
Not doubting the R&D abilities to come up with new game mechanics for every 4 months, but having a few sets to really focus on a mechanic feels like it could really do wonders. A perfect recent example of this was the lackey engine that persisted through a number of expansions. It was/is a really cool mechanic that was awesome for the initial set. The fact that there was lasting support to expand on it for a number of sets made it more fun to splash it into decks, or even create a whole deck around that mechanic. And since Dean hints at deck creation later in the article, this seems to flow for that.
New Rogue & Warrior Spell - Nitroboost Poison
This is a fun little card. I think I'm going to play around with it in a Stealth Rogue style deck. The weapon will corrupt it and you usually have a minion on board to target the attack buff. Looks llike fun.
New Priest Minion - Dark Inquisitor Xanesh
I want this card to be good. The corrupt mechanic is a cool idea that hasn't turned out well yet. I just hope the Priest+neutral corrupt cards package makes for a viable deck.
New Priest & Warlock Spell - Hysteria
I like this card. It is flexible for single target and mass removal options. There are also some interesting possibilities with healing and other 'on attack' conditions. This should make for some fun plays.
New Paladin Weapon - Libram of Judgment
I hope this card is too slow for play. Libram Paladin already has annoying heals this will just make it more frustrating. Hopefully there just isn;t room in the deck to put this card in.
New Paladin & Priest Spell - Rally!
This needs a new style of paladin to make it worthwhile. If Paladin gets a good 1-2-3 curve of minions going that are also worth bringing back all at once, this becomes a great card. I just don't know what that combo would be.
New Mage Minion - Glacier Racer
If this becomes a playable card it will require careful planning on when to play it so that the spellburst is most effective. You will need to play all but one of the single target freeze effects (or trigger the minion attacks), then play this card, and then play the final spell to set it all off. If you are comboing it with Frost Nova or Blizzard, it won't be as tricky. I wonder how well it works since you would want to bank up a few freeze effects for maximum spellburst damage. But how many can you afford to save if you build your deck around those?
The Story of Rexxar: The Missing Pages of Book of Heroes
Oh great, sounds like a cool feature. Thanks for the info Flux :)
New Mage & Shaman Minion - Imprisoned Phoenix
This is an interesting combination of keywords. I think it will require some planning of setting up lethal later. Being able to use mana biscuit at some point to further bank mana will let you do some interesting burst damage on the awaken turn.
New Hunter Spell - Bola Shot
Another shot card but this one doesn't look to be usable right now. I don't think Hunters want to slot a card in for token control.They want cards to go Face.
Blizzard is Exploring Adding More Complete Player Profiles to Hearthstone
No, you haven't missed anything on the deck deletion front. That's always been clunky, and I have been frustrated by it many times myself.
New Hunter Minion - Saddlemaster
I don't think this fits with many Hunter playstyles. They don't usually want to generate random cards, even if it is limited to the beast tribe. You would want to play this with at least one other beast in hand that is also playable that turn but there is no guarantee that you coninue to get playable cards. I'll be surprised if this makes it in a competitive deck.
The Story of Rexxar: The Missing Pages of Book of Heroes
Yup! Sometimes lore stuff doesn't get launched immediately on the main page because it is more "filler" style content (and its been a damn busy month so far). The goal is that everything is eventually promoted there though so it doesn't get missed.
Also, if you love the lore posts and want to see when they are published, we'll have a follow feature coming on the site soon (we'll have a front-page post when it goes live) so you can follow Goliath to get notifications when new lore guides are published (and any other content he ends up writing).
New Druid Spell - Arbor Up
I think it can work to make a final board push in a token druid deck. This is probably the top end of what that deck would like to run. Does the deck have enough other pieces to make it work though?
New Druid & Hunter Spell - Resizing Pouch
I think this one will be very polar in its use. Most of us who don't have the encyclopediac knowledge of the different cards and their costs will not be able to play this at the appropriate time to get what we really want. The true hardcore guys will absolutely use this card well. It is still going to be RNG if you are offered the card you want, but I think it can be good.
New Druid & Shaman Spell - Guidance
I hope this acts like discover to add different spells that you didn't include in the main deck. It would give some potential situational flexibility. I think this will do some work in better enabling the spell damage/burst shaman archetype. I'm not sure where it fits in the druid game plan though.
New Druid Minion - Dreaming Drake
I like that there are new corrupt cards. I just hope that it makes the archetye playable. The new versions of the Old Gods just don't seem impactful on the meta.
New Demon Hunter Minion - Felsaber
The attack restriction is mostly trivial. I know I'm not great at deck building and recognizing interatctions, but I don't see a deck that wouldn't use this. It is over statted and is tough to remove.
Dean Ayala's Community Q&A #2 - More New Modes Confirmed, Profiles, Mini Sets, Arena, Wild, and More!
I've preordered every expansion, and I don't understand what you're on about. Dean's talking about the fact that, no matter what you spend ($10 on packs or $80) there's a bigger barrier to having fun with your purchase than other games because now you have to figure out what decks to make to use the cards you bought.
That's a totally separate issue from "Does the $80 preorder give you enough legendaries" -- for me, I've always thought it's perfectly fine. It's a fun puzzle to play some experimental decks in the first few weeks of the expansion, and having at least a little bit of scarcity is an interesting challenge for me to solve.
New Demon Hunter & Warlock Minion - Luckysoul Hoarder
More shoulshards and more card draw for two classes that don't need it. This will be another staple card in warlock and most demon hunters.
Blizzard is Exploring Adding More Complete Player Profiles to Hearthstone
Hearthstone does not have an intuitive interface. The whole thing is a bit weird. When I first started, there were all sorts of things that I expected to find that aren't there. Or maybe they are! After a while I just gave up. So, to me, it is not surprising that there are things I missed.
Here's another one. I don't really keep that careful track of my card collection. Sometimes I see a deck and what I want to do is grab the deck code into Hearthstone, and when it shows me that I'm missing lots of expensive cards, I just want to delete it. But I can't. I have click 'done', accept that I don't want to auto-complete it, then click delete and confirm. Did I miss something there too?
Dean Ayala's Community Q&A #2 - More New Modes Confirmed, Profiles, Mini Sets, Arena, Wild, and More!
I said non-oppressive, not equal chances for everyone.
Non-oppressive is when t1 decks have clear flaws in their matchup spread, and that can be achieved by nerfing overtuned cards.
That's the difference. "There will always be a t1" is not an argument because complaints are not against the abstract cathegory of t1.