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Wow Nocturne is like a better terror of the tides, ideally you want to play units to make use of the -1 leveled up effect. And with all this nightfall, we should have enough draw to maintain our resource. i like it, i think i'll try nocturne with bilgewater, maybe TF could be a handy champ.

Adorable Infestation

Alright, so after some testing I have to say this just isn't a reliable way to win. Having 4 total combo pieces in your deck out of which 2 are only playable under certain circumstances is just too clunky for a deck that already has trouble keeping itself alive.

Even running two Cult Masters I still lost against a Galakrond Priest who did nothing most of the game and only highrolled a few times. I want this to work, but it's just too slow even against control decks because everyone is packing so much pressure these days.

I'll try to respond by enumerating what I understand to be your points and responding to them one at a time:

1.) Does Riot really have a plan for this game?

I'm not sure if you meant this question literally or figuratively.  For the former: they absolutely have plans, and they have been very open about them on their patch notes, YouTube channel, and Twitter.  For the latter: that is subjective; I personally have been extremely satisfied with LoR to the point of dropping HS completely, but it sounds like your personal experience was the reverse.

2.) Concern that the new release will be radically unbalanced (specifically due to new mechanics)

This paragraph is going to come off as cynical, so apologies in advance.  I don't believe balance is critical for a CCG's success.  Consider the last three releases of Hearthstone:

• Descent of Dragons: ladder is dominated by Galakrond Shaman by the end of Day 1
• Ashes of Outlands: ladder is dominated by Demon Hunter by the end of Day 1
• Scholomance Academy: ladder is dominated defined by Big Druid Guardian Animals Druid by the end of Day 1 very early

Of course, that's just the high-side of balance.  There's also the low side: cards which aren't powerful enough to be viable, and in many ways that's even more heart breaking.  It's become common practice to designate legendaries and epics as "safe to disenchant" because everyone is convinced that Team 5 won't ever buff them, so their own value is as a resource to craft other cards.

I'm not as familiar with MtG, but I think they've had similar recent Day 1 misfires via Oko and companions.

I don't say these things to throw shade at those games.  Rather, I submit them as objective evidence that--despite what forum posts and twitter rants imply--players are actually extremely tolerant of imbalance issues and willing to forgive so long as any overly-powerful archetypes are eventually addressed through patch / rules change.  In other words: for the most part, it doesn't alter players' long-term behaviors.

That said: I've been not but impressed with how Riot has been balancing LoR--both in terms of timeliness and quality.  They buff and nerf, the meta shifts on an almost weekly basis, and every champion has at least one home that is if not competitive at least viable.  Again: if this was a true priority for players, I would expect to see more defecting from those games to LoR or at the very least being more vocal in their comparisons between LoR and their games of choice.  Regardless, I am very confident Riot will continue to excel with this expansion.

3.) Concern that adding many different mechanics will compromise their ability to balance

I actually have the opposite concern: that not having enough mechanics makes the game too linear to balance well.  Recently, many of the top tier meta decks have had a theme of "just add good cards" (e.g., Ashe Noxus, Ezreal TF, less recently bannerman and kinkou elusives).  These decks don't invest heavily on any particular synergy and instead just look to make big plays with the minimal amount of moving parts.  You can tamp down on this somewhat through nerfs as both the latter 2 decks have seen, but if the gameplay is too linear then all you're doing is encouraging a card substitution as seen when elusives dropped Inspiring Mentor and picked up Omen Hawk.

Put another way: experts have theorized that the reason why chess hasn't been "solved" has been because of the knight.  His unusual pattern and ability to hop over other pieces add a lot of unique options to that game, whereas if he moved like a rook he would ostensibly be more individually powerful but also more predictable.

I think that's all I've got.  I sound like I total Riot-fanboi now, don't I?  :-P

Rekindler first because after he has entered the board Nautilus gets summoned.

Quote From Pezman

I used to run Clear the Way, but too often I'd play something like Swarm of Locusts and not even get the gryphon. It's a very good quest support, but can contradict some of your other choices.

yeah I learned that the hard way too. It really was Springpaw that made that thing work

Almost not worth playing pre-flip, but after, it's basically a flipped-Ashe threat level.

Thank the gods it's not "when you summon a unit," or Haunted Relic would be the end of everyone.

I'm not in love with the design, though. Requiring a critical mass of Nightfall units when there are so few to choose from will lead to a lot of very same-y deckbuilding.

Nocturne feels pretty strong, it's already useful before levelling up, and the level up is similar in a way to Ashe's.

The other cards are nice too, especially summoning mistwraiths at burst speed and having a 1 mana cost burst spell perfect for nightfall cards

EDIT: for some reason my brain believed stalking shadows costed 4 mana instead of 2, that card is nuts

I personally feel like this doesn't have nearly enough card draw to justify the endgame combo so I forceed in two Cult Masters while also cutting a bunch of other stuff.

I wanted to know though, how does Khartut perform? It sounds kind of enticing to have some extra heal (since Zilliax is missed dearly), but it looks to be rather slow and clunky

Probably intended as a Nightfall trigger, but its applications are so much broader. For example, it makes Risen Mists even scarier.

Quote From PLANETCRUNCH

if you want to play Reliquary of souls that badly just craft First Day of school and play Paladin.

Every paladin I've fought this weekend seemed to get that legendary from that zero mana spell.

OR you can play Shaman with Fist of Ra-Den and cast lightning bolt.

I've done the Shaman route... you die.  A lot.  Yay, you get a legendary... that you cannot support with your deck and will ultimately be destroyed for doing.

Quote From anchorm4n

Alright I guess I'm gonna blow some dust and try out both decks. And I'll also try out to sneak in Ace Hunter Kreen because I really like that card and got a golden copy from the preorder bundle. Rush minions + Kreen might actually work out.

Kreen is definitely a good addition (I updated the list recently and you can easily use him to replace Teacher's Pet). I just didn't have him yet and didn't want to craft him just for an experiment.

"Mistwraiths are great! Fearsome isn't that OP."

A FEW WEEKS LATER: "Uh, guys, I think we have to nerf Mistwraiths."

A FEW MONTHS LATER: "Mistwraiths are great! Fearsome isn't that OP. Let's give the players Mistwraiths at Burst speed!"

HAHA MY OPPONENT HAS 9 CARDS IN HAND AND 7 OF THEM WERE RANDOMLY GENERATED INCLUDING A SOLARIAN PRIME. BOY THAT WAS FUN WATCHING HIM JERK OFF FOR 5 MINUTES. I LOOOOOOOVE THE INTERACTIVITY

Broken. Ephemerals are now S-rank. Will need an immediate nerf.

At least you can't get a Champion, but there are plenty of followers that make this thing crazy.

Often better than Vile Feast unless you care about spiders. Nightfall units aren't great, but a card's a card. (And if you have the mana to play the unit immediately, you've already got the trigger.)

Then again, you have to plan more carefully to be sure you get the Nightfall value, so bad players may struggle to use it well.

Nocturne is just OK, but everything else is bonkers! Burst-speed Mistwraith is terrifying.

Seems pretty strong against other aggro decks the -1 attack if you got other fearsome units on the board, versus decks that have bigger minions the lvled up version maybe can do the work to get them to 2 attack if your able to generate and play alot of low cost minions stalking shadows may be able to help with that.

Nocturne seems like a pretty aggressive card but attacking 5 times with nightfall minions might be difficult.

Can we pleeeease have more RNG so the little timmies who play like shit can still win somehow? Thanks! I remember when arena was considered the "skill" mode, now it just comes down to who RNGESUS decided was a better boy for christmas. FUCK ME

can you add the new keywords to the guide = Tks