I don't like that idea, mostly because of cards like Thernogenic Beam. When you have 0 mana left and thst card in your hand, the game won't skip automatically because you could play it for 0.
Since it is one of very few cards that cost 0 you basically tell your opponent that you have this card in your hand.
It's more than just that--e.g. if I have 1 mana and was playing Frejlord, then you could tell whether or not I had an Elixir of Iron and/or Brittle Steel in hand. But this is just an implementation issue--it's easy enough to make it so auto-pass waits ~1 second so to imitate a human. Heck--you could even make it randomize between 0.5 and 3.0 seconds statistically weighted around 1.0 if you're worried about it becoming too recognizable.
So far, there's been a good variety of decks in the meta. I haven't faced anything that's broken. Maybe the Guardian Animals Druid, but it just so happens that they really can't answer this Aggro Paladin deck I've been piloting. A couple of other observations after playing the whole day:
1) Aggro/Tempo Paladin looks really strong right now. I'm playing a really fast version with Tour Guide and some really sticky minions with divine shield and reborn, to guarantee I'll have a board to buff. I went 7-0 against Druids, 15-3 overall that took me up to Diamond 3. It's a joy to play, and if done right you can go wide and tall on your board at the same time. High Abbess Alura is devastating.
2) I've faced a number of Tempo/Inner Fire Priests. Power Word: Feast is super annoying to deal with, and it's mostly game over once they stick it on a high-health minion.
3) I haven't faced a lot of Demon Hunters, which is...great? I fully expect an aggro DH deck to resurface any day now though.
4) Spell Damage Mage looks pretty slow. Not sure if it's an OTK deck, because all they seem to do is stall. I got killed by Mozaki, Master Duelist with +10 spell damage though lol. Once she hits the board, she needs to be removed
A week after I posted my Hecarim/Kalista deck over half of the decks in ranked are slight variants of it... lol. The funny part is now its hard to find the usual meta decks because Hecarush beats them ;p Unfortunately for me, Hecarush is weak to Hecarush so mirror comes down to who gets sharks/kalista up and running first... T_T
Yeah, there are valid aggro solutions still present in the game like various draven lists, also they who endure presents a problem, you can't remove a 20/20 overwhelm unless you have shadow in your list too. Trafarian assessor generating too much value etc.
It's important to understand that win rate's overall have never been lower, and they vary from 70 - 30 depending on matchup.
It's all just about picking what is working against what everyone else is playing.
Replace Fencing Coach with Tour Guide for this expansion, this will improve the deck significantly in fast matchups, 1 mana is much easer than 3 mana to fit in a turn.
One question though: you say we won't see Argent Braggart very often because it's an epic. I was under the impression that they now mixed epics, rares, and commons together, and that the prevalence of a card was based on which power level bucket they assign it to rather than its rarity. Am I incorrect about that?
Has anyone found a good place for Headmaster Kel'Thuzad yet? I'd like to play him in a deck but can't seem to slot him in. I feel like he belongs in Priest but that class already has so much AoE removal. Any advice welcome :)
I've liked him in Highlander Priest, since you tend to have a wide variety of cheap removal spells, but can also pick up things like Shadow Word: Ruin from Zephrys the Great to steal a bunch of big stuff all at once in the late game.
Trueaim Crescent seems to only be here because it's a new card. Unless you get it with Ace Hunter Kreen it does the opposite of helping you with your game plan. Do you really want a Light's Justice that can kill your minions? I can think of several better cards to run.
Can't believe 3 Shaman decks actually passed on Instructor Fireheart, it's one of the most versatile, insane value cards you can play at any stage of the game and great huge results.
Definitely one of the cards I'm most satisfied with getting off the bat, and I can't imagine a Shaman deck that can't benefit from it.
I opened 90 so far, bought from gold. 10 to come with quests and my last 600 gold.
I had my first duplicate in the first pack, my first rare duplicate in pack 5. The last all new pack was #10.
I finished commons with the 28th pack, rares in 62.
With 19 epics I'm ever so slightly above average, which is great. I got all priest ones double, and one of each paladin and hunter.
I got 6 legendaries + a free Mozaki, Master Duelist. This is slightly above average, specificly I'm in the luckiest 30% percent here. The longest stretch between was 38 packs, and once I had two legendaries in back-to-back packs. Ras Frostwhisper,Infiltrator Lilian,Vectus, Ace Hunter Kreen, Sphere of Sapience and Instructor Fireheart. I'm quite happy with those, since I like to play hunter and rogue, and, if it is viable, I also have everything for a spelldamage deck.
I got 5 golden common, 3 golden rare, and 1 golden epic.-slightly below average, but who cares.
Not sure what you mean by first duplicate in the first pack due to the change in all rarities where no duplicate cards will show till you've got them all (per rarity)
I think I was quite lucky. 42 packs total. Most notable cards:
Has anyone found a good place for Headmaster Kel'Thuzad yet? I'd like to play him in a deck but can't seem to slot him in. I feel like he belongs in Priest but that class already has so much AoE removal. Any advice welcome :)
So my thoughts so far from playing a few games with him pretty much match what I thought when he was first revealed, very slow, but also ridiculously good at controlling the board.
Been running him in my Wild Fatigue Warrior with N’Zoth, and he definitely does carry his own weight. Results are a bit skewed because opponents don’t really know what to do against him though, Razakus ends up using 5 or so cards to be able to kill him a few times, and other opponents keep alternating between trying to kill him, to ignoring him.
Altogether for me, he’s exactly what I felt like I was missing in Warrior, a high impact card that can take advantage of your hero power drawing out games. He’s threatening to opponents up until he’s a 4/4, giving you massive card advantage against them.
Been having a lot of fun with the new tour guide-enabled beardo OTK.
It seems pretty consistent, but it's probably not as reliable as mecha'thun warlock.
EDIT: I also love polkelt and sphere of sapience. They are the kind of cards I really hope they start printing instead of filling leftover neutral legendary slots with chaff.
I've been trying to make the self-harm/heal cards work in Priest, and the combination of Soulbound Ashtongue and Apotheosis is pretty nuts - each attack you make with him decreases the cost of Flesh Giant by at least 2 mana, as he harms and then immediately heals you.
A friend of mine is playing Quest Soul Fragment Warlock with Rafaam as a late game thread. Looks pretty strong, the Fragment cards make for a good early game.
Can anyone say if sphere is any good?
Sphere is is highly dependent on your deck. It's insane in decks that don't want to draw specific cards. My OTK Miracle Priest in wild always had the problem of drawing my big minions before i could play Zerek's Cloning Gallery and the weapon negates this completely which improved its consistency a lot. Big Warrior and Big Paladin also want to keep their big minions in the deck so they can cheat them out. In the right deck Sphere of Sapience is a complete game changer. I don't know how good it is for regular control and other combo decks. It needs more testing.
I think it is simply that old decks are still legal (i.e. you could still make the same deck with the SA card pool), so there was no need to reset them.
I think that's probably what it is. If that's the new normal then we'll only get a rotation once per year.
Got Professor Slate for logging in, not too happy about that. After that, opened Ace Hunter Kreen in the 8th pack as my first in tenth. Quite the turning point, i may say.
I got 70 packs ready from gold, and i open 10 pack every few hours so that the hype not running out so soon. Now i've open 40 pack and to my delight i got Instructor Fireheart on the last pack.
Got 30 more to open till next day i think.. i feel i could get 1 more in those 30 but hopefully.. hopefully blizzard bless me with 2.
toxic players
It's more than just that--e.g. if I have 1 mana and was playing Frejlord, then you could tell whether or not I had an Elixir of Iron and/or Brittle Steel in hand. But this is just an implementation issue--it's easy enough to make it so auto-pass waits ~1 second so to imitate a human. Heck--you could even make it randomize between 0.5 and 3.0 seconds statistically weighted around 1.0 if you're worried about it becoming too recognizable.
Day 1: What works and what doesn't?
So far, there's been a good variety of decks in the meta. I haven't faced anything that's broken. Maybe the Guardian Animals Druid, but it just so happens that they really can't answer this Aggro Paladin deck I've been piloting. A couple of other observations after playing the whole day:
1) Aggro/Tempo Paladin looks really strong right now. I'm playing a really fast version with Tour Guide and some really sticky minions with divine shield and reborn, to guarantee I'll have a board to buff. I went 7-0 against Druids, 15-3 overall that took me up to Diamond 3. It's a joy to play, and if done right you can go wide and tall on your board at the same time. High Abbess Alura is devastating.
2) I've faced a number of Tempo/Inner Fire Priests. Power Word: Feast is super annoying to deal with, and it's mostly game over once they stick it on a high-health minion.
3) I haven't faced a lot of Demon Hunters, which is...great? I fully expect an aggro DH deck to resurface any day now though.
4) Spell Damage Mage looks pretty slow. Not sure if it's an OTK deck, because all they seem to do is stall. I got killed by Mozaki, Master Duelist with +10 spell damage though lol. Once she hits the board, she needs to be removed
5) I haven't seen Headmaster Kel'Thuzad used anywhere yet, which is weird.
That's what I get for linking a deck and description.
A week after I posted my Hecarim/Kalista deck over half of the decks in ranked are slight variants of it... lol. The funny part is now its hard to find the usual meta decks because Hecarush beats them ;p Unfortunately for me, Hecarush is weak to Hecarush so mirror comes down to who gets sharks/kalista up and running first... T_T
SA Arena rotation?
That's right. But still, I worry about the Arena.
Bilgewater - P and Z - feeling very strong
Yeah, there are valid aggro solutions still present in the game like various draven lists, also they who endure presents a problem, you can't remove a 20/20 overwhelm unless you have shadow in your list too. Trafarian assessor generating too much value etc.
It's important to understand that win rate's overall have never been lower, and they vary from 70 - 30 depending on matchup.
It's all just about picking what is working against what everyone else is playing.
The Cupcake Card Back (April 2015 Ranked Reward) Appears to be Returning to the Hearthstone Shop
When does this drop?
C'thun Shaman - Long Guide
Replace Fencing Coach with Tour Guide for this expansion, this will improve the deck significantly in fast matchups, 1 mana is much easer than 3 mana to fit in a turn.
Boozor's Top 10 Hearthstone Arena Impact Cards From Scholomance Academy - Advice from an Arena Legend
Great analysis!
One question though: you say we won't see Argent Braggart very often because it's an epic. I was under the impression that they now mixed epics, rares, and commons together, and that the prevalence of a card was based on which power level bucket they assign it to rather than its rarity. Am I incorrect about that?
Bilgewater - P and Z - feeling very strong
Both are toxic to play against, thus why I prefer to win by turn 5-6 and negate most of these decks potential...
Pack opening story and analysis
So far I´ve opened 60 (gold) + 4 free packs, and got:
1free Disciplinarian Gandling
3 legedaries Infiltrator Lilian, Ras Frostwhisper and Vectus.
14 epics (one golden Secret Passage), all rares and commons.
Not bad I guess.
EDIT: After opening two free packs from legendary quest I got one more epic and a legendary Instructor Fireheart. Pretty happy with results now :)
Offtopic: I think I´m going on the same route as Elfensilver with opened legendaries XD
Day 1: What works and what doesn't?
I've liked him in Highlander Priest, since you tend to have a wide variety of cheap removal spells, but can also pick up things like Shadow Word: Ruin from Zephrys the Great to steal a bunch of big stuff all at once in the late game.
XiaoT's Tempo Demon Hunter - Scholomance Day 1 Deck
Trueaim Crescent seems to only be here because it's a new card. Unless you get it with Ace Hunter Kreen it does the opposite of helping you with your game plan. Do you really want a Light's Justice that can kill your minions? I can think of several better cards to run.
Bilgewater - P and Z - feeling very strong
A little while back I had mentioned that this region combo might be one of the strongest in the game right now.
I'm just going to share 3 different deck lists, that differ pretty wildly in construction but are still all hugely powerful.
The first up is the meta EZ Tf list - https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/bruod4pla4s47cktkfn0
We've all had enough time to play against this list to know it's power potential, but it's also easy to play around if you know the pattern.
The second is a bruised by god's turbo deep - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9IdcUY2SeY&t=218s
This list is far harder to deal with, it really good at stalling out, and going deep super fast
The third is one I put together - focused around vi who I felt wasn't seeing enough play
How do you guys feel about this region combo right now
Awesome Scholomance Academy Launch Decks from Hearthstone's Top Players and Streamers
Can't believe 3 Shaman decks actually passed on Instructor Fireheart, it's one of the most versatile, insane value cards you can play at any stage of the game and great huge results.
Definitely one of the cards I'm most satisfied with getting off the bat, and I can't imagine a Shaman deck that can't benefit from it.
Hadidjah Leaves a Goodbye Easter Egg in the Scholomance Academy Pack Opening Animation
They left for another project, still in Blizzard.
Pack opening story and analysis
Not sure what you mean by first duplicate in the first pack due to the change in all rarities where no duplicate cards will show till you've got them all (per rarity)
I think I was quite lucky. 42 packs total. Most notable cards:
Ace Hunter Kreen off of login
Infiltrator Lilian in first 10 packs
Jandice Barov
Star Student Stelina
golden Survival of the Fittest
Forest Warden Omu on my very last pack
Day 1: What works and what doesn't?
Awesome work! That sounds like a crazy fast climb
Awesome Scholomance Academy Launch Decks from Hearthstone's Top Players and Streamers
Absolutely crushing it with the DH deck. Getting quite a lot of friend requests post game from players taking offense as a... bonus?
Day 1: What works and what doesn't?
Has anyone found a good place for Headmaster Kel'Thuzad yet? I'd like to play him in a deck but can't seem to slot him in. I feel like he belongs in Priest but that class already has so much AoE removal. Any advice welcome :)
New Warrior Minion - Rattlegore
So my thoughts so far from playing a few games with him pretty much match what I thought when he was first revealed, very slow, but also ridiculously good at controlling the board.
Been running him in my Wild Fatigue Warrior with N’Zoth, and he definitely does carry his own weight. Results are a bit skewed because opponents don’t really know what to do against him though, Razakus ends up using 5 or so cards to be able to kill him a few times, and other opponents keep alternating between trying to kill him, to ignoring him.
Altogether for me, he’s exactly what I felt like I was missing in Warrior, a high impact card that can take advantage of your hero power drawing out games. He’s threatening to opponents up until he’s a 4/4, giving you massive card advantage against them.
Day 1: What works and what doesn't?
Been having a lot of fun with the new tour guide-enabled beardo OTK.
It seems pretty consistent, but it's probably not as reliable as mecha'thun warlock.
EDIT: I also love polkelt and sphere of sapience. They are the kind of cards I really hope they start printing instead of filling leftover neutral legendary slots with chaff.
Day 1: What works and what doesn't?
I've been trying to make the self-harm/heal cards work in Priest, and the combination of Soulbound Ashtongue and Apotheosis is pretty nuts - each attack you make with him decreases the cost of Flesh Giant by at least 2 mana, as he harms and then immediately heals you.
Day 1: What works and what doesn't?
Sphere is is highly dependent on your deck. It's insane in decks that don't want to draw specific cards. My OTK Miracle Priest in wild always had the problem of drawing my big minions before i could play Zerek's Cloning Gallery and the weapon negates this completely which improved its consistency a lot. Big Warrior and Big Paladin also want to keep their big minions in the deck so they can cheat them out. In the right deck Sphere of Sapience is a complete game changer. I don't know how good it is for regular control and other combo decks. It needs more testing.
SA Arena rotation?
I think that's probably what it is. If that's the new normal then we'll only get a rotation once per year.
Pack opening story and analysis
Got Professor Slate for logging in, not too happy about that. After that, opened Ace Hunter Kreen in the 8th pack as my first in tenth. Quite the turning point, i may say.
I got 70 packs ready from gold, and i open 10 pack every few hours so that the hype not running out so soon. Now i've open 40 pack and to my delight i got Instructor Fireheart on the last pack.
Got 30 more to open till next day i think.. i feel i could get 1 more in those 30 but hopefully.. hopefully blizzard bless me with 2.