It's worth pointing out that all these buffs are permanent, not until end-of-turn. Targon is going to give Demacia a run for title of reigning board bully.
Greetings there! I'm here to present you my version of how I would change Mage's Core Sets. I'm jumping the bandwagon a bit with the changes after seeing some other people trying their reworks and generally accepting classes may need some updates.
After a long time, I've put crossfire onto Mage. While it's very hard to actually do them, please don't think I'm going to make changes for literally every class, altough if I get bored, I might do in near future. Also chose Mage this time, because while their core sets are cohesive and fulfill the fantasy, over time, some of the cards have become either problematic or obsolete. I'm also adding some new class identity to the class - mainly Dragons and RNG.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Show Spoiler
Strengths
Spells - Mages can cast a wide array of spells.
Stalling - Mages will ensure you aren't going anywhere while they're untouched.
Dragons - These creatures contain magic that Mages gladly use.
Card Draw and Generation - Insight flows like magic and grants Mages power to cast spells quickly.
RNG - Casinos are open to you.
Limitations
Buffs - Mages can conjure their allies.
Cost Reduction - Mages can cast spells faster, but not that often.
Weaknesses
Survivability - Mages are usually fragile when you overcome their magic.
Minions - Mages do not have large minions by themselves.
Frost Nova - changed to reduce the survivability for Mage, but the new one has more payoff for the commitment of freezing your opponent's board in form of card draw.
Kabal Lackey - added as part of my revisory to my Core Set, where I increase the Classic Set to 16 cards and add necessary changes. Lackey replaced Kirin Tor Mage, because while that card was better for agressive Secret decks and provided a safer discount for them, agression isn't something this class has, so it made more sense to add a slightly weaker unit that can allow for more interesting Secret play. Also, he helps Aegwynn becoming better.
Sorcerer's Apprentice - the highlight of the changes. Replacing it with an entirely new card would still cause too much problems for Wild, so I instead opted to change her into a 1-drop to relive the days of Tempo Mage again and keep it in check. She has created some of the most uninteractive stuff over the years, and while she can still reduce the cost of spells, it's no longer applied on all spells after the first one.
Snap Freeze - it's a better card than Shatter, and that card was a close candidate to be included in the Core Sets. It's for you, Ben Brode. And for some Freeze synergy users.
Scorching Wave- added as part of my revisory to my Core Set, where I increase the Classic Set to 16 cards and add necessary changes. A new control tool. It does some nice damage to a minion, but the real value is in the upgraded damage on your Hero Power. With future expansions, this card can give those Hero Power-related cards some more oomph.
Arcane Breath - added as part of my revisory to my Core Set, where I increase the Classic Set to 16 cards and add necessary changes. This addition further strengthens future Dragon-based Mage decks.
Mana Bind -another hightlight of this set. Counterspell has been toxic throughout it's existence, creting so many unfun moments. This one will serve similar purpose without pointing a middle finger.
Frosty Fausting - a nice stalling tool for any deck that aims to draw a lot of cards. Gadgetzan Auctioneer just got a cold friend to be supported alongside. Note that it won't Freeze enemies that are already frozen.
Apexis Smuggler - a better Secret synergy card, giving you a lot of card generation.
Magna Aegwynn - the pinnacle of card generation. You can reuse a lot of your spells, and with some cost reduction, you can get even more. Also has fun synergy with Snap Freeze.
Hall of Fame
Show Spoiler
Some cards that were considered, but didn't make the cut
Show Spoiler
Ice Block - don't worry, I wanted to add it changed to add a burst heal instead of giving you Immune. But even that had some problems itself, so I did not lean towards rereturning a hall of fame'd card.
Starscryer - a decent addition, but tutoring is dangerous to have in an evergreen set.
Volcanic Potion - good AoE, but it did not fit thematically.
Violet Spellwing - was meant to be the 1-drop for Tempo Mage, but it wasn't particularly interesting, and having an evergreen Deathrattle for mage can be misleading.
Pyromaniac - not a bad card to be evergreen, but I lacked room for this. Hero Power cards were going to be in the set, but I had no idea how to fit them in.
Daring Fire-Eater - this one was close to make the cut, but obviously I tried to keep [Hearthstone Card (Sorcerer Apprentice) Not Found] to save both modes and not only Standard.
Interesting idea, but too slow for the current meta... That or needs a better guide. Lost 4 out of 5. The one that I did win was against another super slow deck.
Looks like someone missed that this was posted as "Just for Fun
Yeah that sounds like the wild I remember from last season, quest mage and raza priest every where ^^
Is big warrior actually viable? I am missing rattlegore and am hesitant to craft it since it seems it doesn't have a place on any other deck. I thought big warrior was just one of the day one memes, maybe I should give it a try.
It was when I played it. This was shortly after the expansion got released, however, so nearly everything was viable at that point.
I'd wait for viciousSyndicate's meta report tomorrow to see which control decks have the best success rates before crafting anything.
It will later today. I just release these as guides as soon as they are finished, and they they are slotted into the schedule of things to be featured on the main page. With all the Reddit info, we had to wait for this article to have its turn. That's all :)
It was stated at the end of competition 1.20 that you guys were looking at starting season 2 around the mid expansion time, are there any updates on a more specific date for it?
People who are suggesting OP to play wild clearly haven't played wild constructed in a while.
It was bad enough for a control player in wild last expansion with Quest mage running rampant.
And now you've got Reno priest, which was already a top tier deck before, with a bunch of new cards AND druids with their regained innervate all over the place.
Wild is combo all around right now. Good luck playing a control deck there.
But as others have rightfully said already, there's plenty of viable control decks in standard right now.
Highlander mage, bomb/big warrior and galakrond priest (in order from most to least effective) are all more than serviceable decks.
Clearly your absolutistic statements about Wild are BS.
I'm not even bothering to argue with one who comments like that, as it would be a waste of time.
Just pointing out for the others that Reno Priest is NOT a Combo deck, despite its optional pew pew package. Reno Priest stays a Control deck - it actually looks more and more like a Tech deck.
And while QMage and MalyDruid seem to be revamped, so are many Aggro decks, and by far the average meta population is NOT Combo, it's Aggro - which means that a good chunk of the meta can be countered with properly tuned Control decks.
Scalelord replacing Megasaur seems like a good fix. It's that swing into a double buff on divine and poisonous in 1 transition turn that makes it too strong.
I'd bet mostly on rogue and priest. Both classes currently have only 1 tribe associated with them, and both have a strong deathrattle focus (which I would expect to be quite prominent in an undead tribe).
Plus rogue just has a long history of getting undead characters (especially forsaken) outside of undead-heavy sets (e.g. Undercity Valiant, Undercity Huckster, Myra Rotspring, Plaguebringer, Kidnapper to name a few), mostly because of their affiliation with poisons and sticking to shadows.
Of course, if Death Knights get added a long way down the line, it would be heresy for them not to use the undead tribe if it existed.
I actually think tokens from any source should not do any damage. They're saying tokens feel okay aside from Pagle and Tide Razor, but taking 7 damage because you killed the opponent's buffed up Rat Pack always feels bad and it always will until it is addressed. Changing token damage to 1 will certainly be a step in the right direction though, and I still think they should swap Rat Pack and Infested Wolf (in addition to adding or buffing some beast (synergy) cards).
Two other (imo obvious) things to change:
1. Nerf or preferably remove Arcane Cannon.
2. Reduce damage taken in some way. Ever since the pirates patch the damage you take even from small losses is absurd.
A possible solution I think they should experiment with is to change damage dealt to be equal to the current turn count. This way damage is still small in the early game and it ramps up more gradually, but lategame losses will always deal significant but not too large amounts of damage regardless of your build. A potential problem I could with this is that tavern 1 or 2 builds become more popular (probably mainly with Dancing Daryll or Pogos) because they don't have to worry about dealing too little damage and allowing their opponents to outscale them. However, I think it does at the same time solve another problem which is that losing too much hp because too many of your opponent's high tavern tier minions survived with small amounts of hp feels really bad.
How would taking away their entire endgame fix Murlocs though? They're already super weak in the midgame. How would you replace the current strategy?
Seriously, are you expecting Murloc comps to find multiple Toxfins out of 12 total? And buff their health without Brann? Even if you have 6 Poisonous Murlocs, you'll never win because they won't survive any hits. And the opponent's 7th minion will win.
Either Scalelord should replace Megasaur and keep Brann, or a new minion should be introduced.
Man I hope there are permanent spellshield buff cards. A hexproof mechanic is sorely lacking from this game. Burn/removal needs a counter other than unyielding which doesn't stop recall or oblit.
Fixing murlocs in BGs is as simple as moving Brann to tier 6 and removing Megasaur entirely. Two non-murlocs are what is breaking the tribe. Force them to get their poison one toxfin at a time and take away thier bubbles and they'll still be powerful if built right, but not an autowin for the guy, regardless of hero, in every lobby who gets the nuts.
I'd be more excited about this news if I thought that the Priest revamp went well. But as far as I can tell, while it did remove some cards which were degenerate with respect to their play patterns/the class identity generally, the cards that were added in fall into two camps: they're designed for the consistently weak, under-supported Tempo Priest, or they're outclassed control cards.
The former camp is made up of Kul Tiran Chaplain, Power Infusion, and Scarlet Subjugator. The Scarlet Subjugator is garbage in a world with Demon Hunter thanks to the 1 mana hero power, but on paper the other two seem like they should be decent cards - Kul Tiran Chaplain represents 3 mana's worth of stats and can help you make trades, while Power Infusion offers a way to leverage Inner Fire as a finisher. In practice, though, the health buff doesn't do anything to make trading easier because 1-drops usually have 1 attack and therefore can't trade with enemy minions until you play an attack buff, while the finishing power of Inner Fire is largely irrelevant because there's almost no card draw available for in Priest, and therefore very little consistency in the decks. (The card draw thing is really very upsetting here - right now in standard, the average number of class-specific draw effects is 6, but Priest only has 1: Mass Dispel. Shaman is close with only 2, but their hero power and mass buffs make Tempo play easier.) I have tried a lot of different versions of this deck since Scholomance Academy dropped, and they're all wildly inconsistent.
The latter camp is made up of Shadow Word: Ruin, Natalie Seline, and [Hearthstone Card (Pyschic Conjurer) Not Found]. Like the Subjugator, [Hearthstone Card (Pyschic Conjurer) Not Found] sees no play because a random enemy card isn't worth the horrific tempo of a 1/1. And as with the other set of cards, Shadow Word: Ruin and Natalie Seline are strong on paper but don't really see any play (outside of getting pulled from Zephrys the Great). Perhaps with rotation, when Highlander stops being so omnipresent in control, we'll see more of these cards. But right now they're outclassed.
I don't want to be too negative here - a massive revamp might make the Priest revamp more relevant and generally improve the health of the game - but I come at this news with very strong skepticism.
Taric is the Newest Legends of Runeterra Champion Coming in Call of the Mountain (7 New Cards!)
It's worth pointing out that all these buffs are permanent, not until end-of-turn. Targon is going to give Demacia a run for title of reigning board bully.
New Targon Spell - Shards of the Mountain
A new Epic Targon Spell, Shards of the Mountain, has been revealed!
Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page to give it a rating!
Learn more about Call of the Mountain
Head on over to our dedicated guide for Call of the Mountain!
Taric is the Newest Legends of Runeterra Champion Coming in Call of the Mountain (7 New Cards!)
This is so cool! Arbiter of the Peak seems way better now. Also, a Gem + Jae Medarda deck seems like it could be really good!
Neoguli's Custom Mage Core Set Changes
Greetings there! I'm here to present you my version of how I would change Mage's Core Sets. I'm jumping the bandwagon a bit with the changes after seeing some other people trying their reworks and generally accepting classes may need some updates.
After a long time, I've put crossfire onto Mage. While it's very hard to actually do them, please don't think I'm going to make changes for literally every class, altough if I get bored, I might do in near future. Also chose Mage this time, because while their core sets are cohesive and fulfill the fantasy, over time, some of the cards have become either problematic or obsolete. I'm also adding some new class identity to the class - mainly Dragons and RNG.
Strengths and Weaknesses
New Sets
Basic Set
Classic Set
Explanations
Shooting Star - a bit more consistent to have in the arsenal over Arcane Explosion.
Frost Nova - changed to reduce the survivability for Mage, but the new one has more payoff for the commitment of freezing your opponent's board in form of card draw.
Kabal Lackey - added as part of my revisory to my Core Set, where I increase the Classic Set to 16 cards and add necessary changes. Lackey replaced Kirin Tor Mage, because while that card was better for agressive Secret decks and provided a safer discount for them, agression isn't something this class has, so it made more sense to add a slightly weaker unit that can allow for more interesting Secret play. Also, he helps Aegwynn becoming better.
Sorcerer's Apprentice - the highlight of the changes. Replacing it with an entirely new card would still cause too much problems for Wild, so I instead opted to change her into a 1-drop to relive the days of Tempo Mage again and keep it in check. She has created some of the most uninteractive stuff over the years, and while she can still reduce the cost of spells, it's no longer applied on all spells after the first one.
Snap Freeze - it's a better card than Shatter, and that card was a close candidate to be included in the Core Sets. It's for you, Ben Brode. And for some Freeze synergy users.
Scorching Wave - added as part of my revisory to my Core Set, where I increase the Classic Set to 16 cards and add necessary changes. A new control tool. It does some nice damage to a minion, but the real value is in the upgraded damage on your Hero Power. With future expansions, this card can give those Hero Power-related cards some more oomph.
Arcane Breath - added as part of my revisory to my Core Set, where I increase the Classic Set to 16 cards and add necessary changes. This addition further strengthens future Dragon-based Mage decks.
Mana Bind -another hightlight of this set. Counterspell has been toxic throughout it's existence, creting so many unfun moments. This one will serve similar purpose without pointing a middle finger.
Frosty Fausting - a nice stalling tool for any deck that aims to draw a lot of cards. Gadgetzan Auctioneer just got a cold friend to be supported alongside. Note that it won't Freeze enemies that are already frozen.
Apexis Smuggler - a better Secret synergy card, giving you a lot of card generation.
Magna Aegwynn - the pinnacle of card generation. You can reuse a lot of your spells, and with some cost reduction, you can get even more. Also has fun synergy with Snap Freeze.
Hall of Fame
Some cards that were considered, but didn't make the cut
Ice Block - don't worry, I wanted to add it changed to add a burst heal instead of giving you Immune. But even that had some problems itself, so I did not lean towards rereturning a hall of fame'd card.
Starscryer - a decent addition, but tutoring is dangerous to have in an evergreen set.
Volcanic Potion - good AoE, but it did not fit thematically.
Violet Spellwing - was meant to be the 1-drop for Tempo Mage, but it wasn't particularly interesting, and having an evergreen Deathrattle for mage can be misleading.
Rhonin - same reason.
Wee Spellstopper - probably a bit too toxic to be evegreen, even though Robes of Protection power crept her out of oblivion.
Pyromaniac - not a bad card to be evergreen, but I lacked room for this. Hero Power cards were going to be in the set, but I had no idea how to fit them in.
Daring Fire-Eater - this one was close to make the cut, but obviously I tried to keep [Hearthstone Card (Sorcerer Apprentice) Not Found] to save both modes and not only Standard.
Among many, many, MANY other cards…
Deck Recipes
Wild · Secret Mage · by Neoguli · 5 years, 10 months ago
August 2020 Hearthstone Dev AMA Full Recap - Battle Pass, Battlegrounds, Arena, Dual Class in the Future
Great recap, thanks!
Great use of Mindrender Illucia and even BETTER use of Lorewalker Cho. I am honestly in disbelief that Cho found a home in anything
Gul'dAnduin Activates the Obelisk
It is decks like this that REALLY make me want to just squander the dust to make the damned Reliquary of Souls
Gul'dAnduin Activates the Obelisk
Looks like someone missed that this was posted as "Just for Fun
August 2020 Hearthstone Dev AMA Full Recap - Battle Pass, Battlegrounds, Arena, Dual Class in the Future
Thanks for the recap; extremely useful!
I don't like aggro. Is hs the wrong game for me?
It was when I played it. This was shortly after the expansion got released, however, so nearly everything was viable at that point.
I'd wait for viciousSyndicate's meta report tomorrow to see which control decks have the best success rates before crafting anything.
Are We Going Back to the Frozen Throne? Hearthstone's Ben Lee Goes Full King Terenas Menethil II in Response to Undead
Now that would be awesome. I love special character interactions in the game like that.
The Story of Kel'Thuzad, Master of Necromancy - Traversing Azeroth
It will later today. I just release these as guides as soon as they are finished, and they they are slotted into the schedule of things to be featured on the main page. With all the Reddit info, we had to wait for this article to have its turn. That's all :)
What Are the Free Hearthstone Decks for New and Returning Players? Decklists
The blog with these Scholomance-updated decks said that 120 days is the limit. As long as that is fulfilled, you're good to go.
Season 2 Of Card Creation
It was stated at the end of competition 1.20 that you guys were looking at starting season 2 around the mid expansion time, are there any updates on a more specific date for it?
I don't like aggro. Is hs the wrong game for me?
Clearly your absolutistic statements about Wild are BS.
I'm not even bothering to argue with one who comments like that, as it would be a waste of time.
Just pointing out for the others that Reno Priest is NOT a Combo deck, despite its optional pew pew package. Reno Priest stays a Control deck - it actually looks more and more like a Tech deck.
And while QMage and MalyDruid seem to be revamped, so are many Aggro decks, and by far the average meta population is NOT Combo, it's Aggro - which means that a good chunk of the meta can be countered with properly tuned Control decks.
August 2020 Hearthstone Dev AMA Full Recap - Battle Pass, Battlegrounds, Arena, Dual Class in the Future
Scalelord replacing Megasaur seems like a good fix. It's that swing into a double buff on divine and poisonous in 1 transition turn that makes it too strong.
Hearthstone is Getting a New Type of Vanity Card
I just wish the golden animations were more prominent
When I randomly saw a Gwent stream those animations in hand and on the board looked great, much more visible
In HS it's much easier to miss them or they just don't stand out in your hand or on the board as much
Are We Going Back to the Frozen Throne? Hearthstone's Ben Lee Goes Full King Terenas Menethil II in Response to Undead
I'd bet mostly on rogue and priest. Both classes currently have only 1 tribe associated with them, and both have a strong deathrattle focus (which I would expect to be quite prominent in an undead tribe).
Plus rogue just has a long history of getting undead characters (especially forsaken) outside of undead-heavy sets (e.g. Undercity Valiant, Undercity Huckster, Myra Rotspring, Plaguebringer, Kidnapper to name a few), mostly because of their affiliation with poisons and sticking to shadows.
Of course, if Death Knights get added a long way down the line, it would be heresy for them not to use the undead tribe if it existed.
Blizzard Talks Problems, Upcoming Content, and Ranked Resets for Hearthstone's Battlegrounds
I actually think tokens from any source should not do any damage. They're saying tokens feel okay aside from Pagle and Tide Razor, but taking 7 damage because you killed the opponent's buffed up Rat Pack always feels bad and it always will until it is addressed. Changing token damage to 1 will certainly be a step in the right direction though, and I still think they should swap Rat Pack and Infested Wolf (in addition to adding or buffing some beast (synergy) cards).
Two other (imo obvious) things to change:
1. Nerf or preferably remove Arcane Cannon.
2. Reduce damage taken in some way. Ever since the pirates patch the damage you take even from small losses is absurd.
A possible solution I think they should experiment with is to change damage dealt to be equal to the current turn count. This way damage is still small in the early game and it ramps up more gradually, but lategame losses will always deal significant but not too large amounts of damage regardless of your build. A potential problem I could with this is that tavern 1 or 2 builds become more popular (probably mainly with Dancing Daryll or Pogos) because they don't have to worry about dealing too little damage and allowing their opponents to outscale them. However, I think it does at the same time solve another problem which is that losing too much hp because too many of your opponent's high tavern tier minions survived with small amounts of hp feels really bad.
August 2020 Hearthstone Dev AMA Full Recap - Battle Pass, Battlegrounds, Arena, Dual Class in the Future
How would taking away their entire endgame fix Murlocs though? They're already super weak in the midgame. How would you replace the current strategy?
Seriously, are you expecting Murloc comps to find multiple Toxfins out of 12 total? And buff their health without Brann? Even if you have 6 Poisonous Murlocs, you'll never win because they won't survive any hits. And the opponent's 7th minion will win.
Either Scalelord should replace Megasaur and keep Brann, or a new minion should be introduced.
New Targon Cards Revealed!! =)
Man I hope there are permanent spellshield buff cards. A hexproof mechanic is sorely lacking from this game. Burn/removal needs a counter other than unyielding which doesn't stop recall or oblit.
August 2020 Hearthstone Dev AMA Full Recap - Battle Pass, Battlegrounds, Arena, Dual Class in the Future
Fixing murlocs in BGs is as simple as moving Brann to tier 6 and removing Megasaur entirely. Two non-murlocs are what is breaking the tribe. Force them to get their poison one toxfin at a time and take away thier bubbles and they'll still be powerful if built right, but not an autowin for the guy, regardless of hero, in every lobby who gets the nuts.
Legends of Runeterra's Next Expansion is Call of the Mountain - Targon Joins as the New Region
''with small variations'' practically mirror matches i literally said that in my first comment.
Celestalon Explains Why Elusive Isn't a Keyword Yet in Hearthstone and the Logic Behind Keyword Choice
You really couldn't find a way to make this point without using one of the most offensive words in the English language? Please be more considerate.
Hearthstone is Evaluating the Basic & Classic Sets for a Revamp, Much Like Priest Received with Ashes of Outland
I'd be more excited about this news if I thought that the Priest revamp went well. But as far as I can tell, while it did remove some cards which were degenerate with respect to their play patterns/the class identity generally, the cards that were added in fall into two camps: they're designed for the consistently weak, under-supported Tempo Priest, or they're outclassed control cards.
The former camp is made up of Kul Tiran Chaplain, Power Infusion, and Scarlet Subjugator. The Scarlet Subjugator is garbage in a world with Demon Hunter thanks to the 1 mana hero power, but on paper the other two seem like they should be decent cards - Kul Tiran Chaplain represents 3 mana's worth of stats and can help you make trades, while Power Infusion offers a way to leverage Inner Fire as a finisher. In practice, though, the health buff doesn't do anything to make trading easier because 1-drops usually have 1 attack and therefore can't trade with enemy minions until you play an attack buff, while the finishing power of Inner Fire is largely irrelevant because there's almost no card draw available for in Priest, and therefore very little consistency in the decks. (The card draw thing is really very upsetting here - right now in standard, the average number of class-specific draw effects is 6, but Priest only has 1: Mass Dispel. Shaman is close with only 2, but their hero power and mass buffs make Tempo play easier.) I have tried a lot of different versions of this deck since Scholomance Academy dropped, and they're all wildly inconsistent.
The latter camp is made up of Shadow Word: Ruin, Natalie Seline, and [Hearthstone Card (Pyschic Conjurer) Not Found]. Like the Subjugator, [Hearthstone Card (Pyschic Conjurer) Not Found] sees no play because a random enemy card isn't worth the horrific tempo of a 1/1. And as with the other set of cards, Shadow Word: Ruin and Natalie Seline are strong on paper but don't really see any play (outside of getting pulled from Zephrys the Great). Perhaps with rotation, when Highlander stops being so omnipresent in control, we'll see more of these cards. But right now they're outclassed.
I don't want to be too negative here - a massive revamp might make the Priest revamp more relevant and generally improve the health of the game - but I come at this news with very strong skepticism.