I agree with @dapperdog that an advanced improvement to the dust system would be best.
I'll also add some rough numbers to what dapperdog said about the monthly membership idea. From my own experience the sum of:
big pre-order;
a couple of mid-expansion bundles;
freebie packs and legendaries;
and a fairly typical amount of gold saved up over an expansion (~8-9k, I'm not getting into a deep discussion of how much we'll get with the new system here)
is enough to get essentially all the cards in a set minus a handful of legendaries. That can come directly from the packs or dust (including a significant amount from nerfs and Hall of Fame. The latter might be an extreme source of dust income next year).
The problem is that all comes to about £100 per expansion cycle (I'm pretty sure its less, but 100 is a nice round number), so the bare minimum they would have you charge to rent cards would be about £25 a month for renting to not just be strictly better than buying cards. I'm not sure how many people would be willing to pay that every month, but you'll certainly get a lot who come back every 4 months, pay £25 to play it like a conventional game for a while, then disappear again. That'll have a potentially catastrophic effect on the playerbase.
£100 for not quite the entire set, that's crazy?!
Show Spoiler
Since we're on the subject of the cost of HS, I think it's worth setting out my own views. After all, it is good for everyone to see things from multiple different perspectives.
Honestly, as hobbies go, it is not that expensive provided you have the expendable income and spend a good amount of time playing the game. A reasonable 1 hour a day puts it at about £100/122 hours = £0.82 per hour to have a mostly complete set. (Whether you have a complete collection will depend on how long you have been playing for, which certainly makes it a lot more expensive for new players, so don't take this as a complete story.)
That cost per hour can definitely be beaten by other things, but there are much much worse that are treated as fine just because society has been doing them for much longer. According to a BBC news article from July last year the average people spent on Friday nights out in the UK was more than £70! And the people involved often do this once a week! (Obviously they haven't been doing it so much in 2020.) That is utterly ludicrous to me, and if society thinks spending £70 to enjoy a few hours each week is fine, then spending £100 to enjoy well over a hundred hours over a few months would be considered an absolute bargain.
That is not to judge anyone whether they or F2P on HS or are the sort who do spend a lot on socialising - everyone's circumstances and philosophies are different - just to point out that when discussing the cost of any game, it is really the cost of enjoyment in a much broader sense and HS doesn't look so expensive when viewed that way. Really we should be praising the video games industry for being as cheap as it is in that context.
That said, the games industry can absolutely be greedy, so please don't take this as any defense of Blizzard's actions with the new progression track or anything else.
And another thing...
Show Spoiler
Don't hate on Ol' Bwonsamdi! He was actually in a few good decks for a little while. Plus with the newer version of the no duplicate rule there shouldn't be any risk of that sort of thing happening again.
Having seen all of the cards for the expansion, there isn't much to take advantage of the divine shields as, at the end of the day, the SHRs only become 2/1s with divine shield. There isn't a Quartermaster or Level Up! to take substantial advantage of a wide SHR board.
Looking forward to disrupting Mage's Chenvaala/S[Hearthstone Card (orcerer's Apprentice) Not Found] turns bu turning their Arcane Missiles into Plague of Flames.
Ok, so when the Battle Pass (BP) idea was announced in the first place, I was skeptical. When Ben Lee came and answered questions regarding the BP around 3 months ago, I was annoyed at the answers (a big understatement, but I don't want to swear). But as time wore on and as we got closer to today and as we got constantly reassured that the new system would be better than the existing one at the time, I actually started giving Blizzard the benefit of the doubt. And that benefit of the doubt came for two reasons: because, if the system would be crap, the backlash could be gigantic (which is kinda happening right now) and because of Raid Shadow Legends, of all things.
Because about a year ago, I actually tried RSL, that crap excuse of a "game". My experience: the thing played by itself, every single aspect of it revolved around RNG and there was nothing but shining particles and pretty effects that would sometimes give you that dopamine rush to disguise the fact that you every single thing implemented in RSL was designed to squeeze money out of you (and no, they didn't squeeze it out of me). Those aspects made me eventually uninstall RSL after playing it for around 4 months because the game was literally gambling except there was no chance in hell you'd get money back.
But the only thing in RSL that actually made me think about spending money was the BP system they implemented, because it was well designed for what the game was about. Everything given in that system was very generous for the reality of the game and there was actually no gambling associated with it. And I thought "if RSL, the most predatorial piece of shit (again, an understatement and I still don't want to swear but with RSL it's impossible not to) got the BP right, I can afford to give HS a chance to do this right". That was the other reason I gave Blizzard the benefit of the doubt.
Now, after looking at what the BP in HS is about, the first thing that came to mind (after actually giving it a few days experimenting with it instead of throwing a random hothead rant on the internet) was: "What were the original numbers?" Because let's not forget. After the whole "I get around 5000G per expansion" debacle Ben Lee threw at us, Blizzard told us the numbers would be better. The current version is not the one that should be improved, the current version is be improved version. The original BP would be even worse!
The second thing that came to my head was: what would a better BP system be? Well, I believe we should take the example of the competition: in this case, of MtGA. They had a BP that was pretty ok back when I was playing the game and some of those characteristics could be implemented in the current HS game. So, here's what I believe HS's BP should have:
Experience per level should be flat. The same experience throughout the entire expansion cycle would give the BP a similar feeling to what the old dailies system gave: a feeling of constant progression.
NO LEVEL CAP! Both RSL's and MtGA's BPs were reward systems that were introduced to complement their daily based original reward systems, not replace them. So a level 100 cap, for example, (with enough time to spare to complete the full BP) makes sense there. However, when maybe 90% of the reward system in your game revolves around the BP (the other 10% would be arena rewards and Brawl packs), a level cap is detrimental to give you a reason to play the game past a certain point. I know it's incredibly farfetched, but what if someone actually reaches level 150? How would that player actually have any motivaton to play the game after that? No level cap, or infinite level cap, could solve those issues.
This one was touched in zeddy's video: restruture the reward order and the rewards themselves. At level 47 and 49, we get 300G. At level 48, we get a Year of the Dragon pack. Now, let's ignore the fact that Year of the Dragon cards have, right now, a 4 month life in standard. Why are we getting 300G in two levels and only the equivalent of 100G between those levels? And if we actually consider these are Year of the Dragon cards, that's 100G forcefully spent on basically wild packs (if you play only standard, that's an even more rotten reward). Which lead me to my next idea:
Pack tickets. I get that, by giving us diferent packs throughout the BP, you're making the BP look more varied with every level giving out a unique reward. But, in reality, packs are dimished value. With pack tickets, the BP can still have a similar gold/packs/arena tickets/cosmetics ratio it currently has while literally giving us more value.
Experience events. These would go extra handy in a world where the BP has no level cap.
(EDIT) Totally forgot about this one, because it's more of a quality of life change: show how much XP you gain after every match. Not only for clarity, but also as a way of showing that every game you play matters and gives you progression.
So, I didn't touch the gold numbers there. They should, of course, simply be higher, especially when compared to the old monetization system and if suggestions number 2 and 5 never become a reality. The BP system, by itself, is not a bad system. The current iteration definitely is. Especially when it seems the usual special quests and random legendary were probably slapped into the first levels as a "hey, look at all the cool stuff you already won with our new reward system" while pretending they don't already give us that through those special quests and logins on expansion day.
EDIT: I didn't touch the achievement system. Honestly, it's really good right now. I believe achievement points could be used in someway but even if they end up being just a number that shows up next to your name, they're still fine. Maybe a bit underwhelming in that scenario, but still fine.
This looks like it has good potential. How many corrupt cards do you need to get reasonable value? Would you care if some of them don't get played this turn?
I initially rated this card highly in the hopes that there would be more secret support for Paladin. Now that we have the whole list, I don't see that support. I'll try some nonsense in casual with it, but don't expect it to be widely played.
New Mage Spell - Deck of Lunacy
Casino mage had enough already. Can we please stop with this and start giving mage something better?
New Paladin Minion - Redscale Dragontamer
I still don't understand the murloc-dragon archetype they're trying to build.
New Druid Spell - Cenarion Ward
Decent with the eclipse.
New Paladin Minion - Balloon Merchant
Will be nice to see dude paladin in standard.
DMF Poll.
I agree with @dapperdog that an advanced improvement to the dust system would be best.
I'll also add some rough numbers to what dapperdog said about the monthly membership idea. From my own experience the sum of:
is enough to get essentially all the cards in a set minus a handful of legendaries. That can come directly from the packs or dust (including a significant amount from nerfs and Hall of Fame. The latter might be an extreme source of dust income next year).
The problem is that all comes to about £100 per expansion cycle (I'm pretty sure its less, but 100 is a nice round number), so the bare minimum they would have you charge to rent cards would be about £25 a month for renting to not just be strictly better than buying cards. I'm not sure how many people would be willing to pay that every month, but you'll certainly get a lot who come back every 4 months, pay £25 to play it like a conventional game for a while, then disappear again. That'll have a potentially catastrophic effect on the playerbase.
£100 for not quite the entire set, that's crazy?!
Since we're on the subject of the cost of HS, I think it's worth setting out my own views. After all, it is good for everyone to see things from multiple different perspectives.
Honestly, as hobbies go, it is not that expensive provided you have the expendable income and spend a good amount of time playing the game. A reasonable 1 hour a day puts it at about £100/122 hours = £0.82 per hour to have a mostly complete set. (Whether you have a complete collection will depend on how long you have been playing for, which certainly makes it a lot more expensive for new players, so don't take this as a complete story.)
That cost per hour can definitely be beaten by other things, but there are much much worse that are treated as fine just because society has been doing them for much longer. According to a BBC news article from July last year the average people spent on Friday nights out in the UK was more than £70! And the people involved often do this once a week! (Obviously they haven't been doing it so much in 2020.) That is utterly ludicrous to me, and if society thinks spending £70 to enjoy a few hours each week is fine, then spending £100 to enjoy well over a hundred hours over a few months would be considered an absolute bargain.
That is not to judge anyone whether they or F2P on HS or are the sort who do spend a lot on socialising - everyone's circumstances and philosophies are different - just to point out that when discussing the cost of any game, it is really the cost of enjoyment in a much broader sense and HS doesn't look so expensive when viewed that way. Really we should be praising the video games industry for being as cheap as it is in that context.
That said, the games industry can absolutely be greedy, so please don't take this as any defense of Blizzard's actions with the new progression track or anything else.
And another thing...
New Demon Hunter Minion - Redeemed Pariah
The achievement for this one seems like it will be the most frustrating of the expansion.
New Neutral Minion - K'thir Ritualist
A slightly above average Taunt body is not worth the drawback of giving a 4-cost to your opponent.
New Mage Spell - Grand Finale
Maybe we're not supposed to do a full elemental mage, but just a small package.
New Paladin Minion - Balloon Merchant
Having seen all of the cards for the expansion, there isn't much to take advantage of the divine shields as, at the end of the day, the SHRs only become 2/1s with divine shield. There isn't a Quartermaster or Level Up! to take substantial advantage of a wide SHR board.
New Warlock Minion - Ring Matron
Mostly in the arena.
New Paladin Spell - Oh My Yogg!
Looking forward to disrupting Mage's Chenvaala/S[Hearthstone Card (orcerer's Apprentice) Not Found] turns bu turning their Arcane Missiles into Plague of Flames.
New Demon Hunter Spell - Throw Glaive
Does not go face.
New Hunter Weapon - Rinling's Rifle
This is just way too slow. But useful in Duels to give variety to the 4-cost weapon pool.
New Neutral Minion - C'Thun, the Shattered
Paring Malevolent Strike with C'Thun helps offset some of the pain of the sub-par spells.
Blizzard LIED and it's NOT FINE
Ok, so when the Battle Pass (BP) idea was announced in the first place, I was skeptical. When Ben Lee came and answered questions regarding the BP around 3 months ago, I was annoyed at the answers (a big understatement, but I don't want to swear). But as time wore on and as we got closer to today and as we got constantly reassured that the new system would be better than the existing one at the time, I actually started giving Blizzard the benefit of the doubt. And that benefit of the doubt came for two reasons: because, if the system would be crap, the backlash could be gigantic (which is kinda happening right now) and because of Raid Shadow Legends, of all things.
Because about a year ago, I actually tried RSL, that crap excuse of a "game". My experience: the thing played by itself, every single aspect of it revolved around RNG and there was nothing but shining particles and pretty effects that would sometimes give you that dopamine rush to disguise the fact that you every single thing implemented in RSL was designed to squeeze money out of you (and no, they didn't squeeze it out of me). Those aspects made me eventually uninstall RSL after playing it for around 4 months because the game was literally gambling except there was no chance in hell you'd get money back.
But the only thing in RSL that actually made me think about spending money was the BP system they implemented, because it was well designed for what the game was about. Everything given in that system was very generous for the reality of the game and there was actually no gambling associated with it. And I thought "if RSL, the most predatorial piece of shit (again, an understatement and I still don't want to swear but with RSL it's impossible not to) got the BP right, I can afford to give HS a chance to do this right". That was the other reason I gave Blizzard the benefit of the doubt.
Now, after looking at what the BP in HS is about, the first thing that came to mind (after actually giving it a few days experimenting with it instead of throwing a random hothead rant on the internet) was: "What were the original numbers?" Because let's not forget. After the whole "I get around 5000G per expansion" debacle Ben Lee threw at us, Blizzard told us the numbers would be better. The current version is not the one that should be improved, the current version is be improved version. The original BP would be even worse!
The second thing that came to my head was: what would a better BP system be? Well, I believe we should take the example of the competition: in this case, of MtGA. They had a BP that was pretty ok back when I was playing the game and some of those characteristics could be implemented in the current HS game. So, here's what I believe HS's BP should have:
So, I didn't touch the gold numbers there. They should, of course, simply be higher, especially when compared to the old monetization system and if suggestions number 2 and 5 never become a reality. The BP system, by itself, is not a bad system. The current iteration definitely is. Especially when it seems the usual special quests and random legendary were probably slapped into the first levels as a "hey, look at all the cool stuff you already won with our new reward system" while pretending they don't already give us that through those special quests and logins on expansion day.
EDIT: I didn't touch the achievement system. Honestly, it's really good right now. I believe achievement points could be used in someway but even if they end up being just a number that shows up next to your name, they're still fine. Maybe a bit underwhelming in that scenario, but still fine.
New Rogue Spell - Malevolent Strike
Paring Malevolent Strike with C'Thun helps offset some of the pain of the sub-par spells.
New Warrior Minion - E.T.C., God of Metal
Can't wait to try out the OTK.
New Warlock Minion - Revenant Rascal
Anything that disrupts your opponent's plans cant be all bad.
New Paladin Spell - Day at the Faire
I don't think this makes it in Odd Paladin -- you want to go fast and this isn't coming on board until 6.
New Rogue Spell - Malevolent Strike
Strong with Ticket Master and C'Thun, the Shattered, probably could also dip in Togwaggle's Scheme, but I'd imagine that the former two for a consistent low cost for swing turns.
New Neutral Minion - Y'Shaarj, the Defiler
This looks like it has good potential. How many corrupt cards do you need to get reasonable value? Would you care if some of them don't get played this turn?
New Druid Spell - Guess the Weight
Really good after a Polkelt.
New Warrior Minion - Sword Eater
Be careful overriding Ancharrr or Wrenchcalibur.
New Neutral Minion - Silas Darkmoon
It is so good to see more exploration of minion placement.
New Paladin Spell - Oh My Yogg!
I initially rated this card highly in the hopes that there would be more secret support for Paladin. Now that we have the whole list, I don't see that support. I'll try some nonsense in casual with it, but don't expect it to be widely played.