All Comments

Did Amazon got rid of the Ear Back Amazon coins thing? Last time a saw it for hearthstone was back when Uldum adventure release and can't find apps with the yellow banner on the app store

Quote From BlueSpark

I'm 99% sure I played him at least once in an Expedition and he entered the board with the buff intact. So at the very least, it's not like his printed card effect doesn't work. However, I guess his effect may also trigger the way meisterz described, which clearly looks like a bug.

Yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear. It works fine if you've already met the "cast a 6+ cost spell" condition, it just also works if you cast the spell later in the game after he's already in play

Yeah... I noticed that but I don't want to let it go, I always liked DS Rexxar fuse mechanic, and with weapons would be awesome (Little short on the options, but nonetheless.)

Maybe it should cost 4 mana, but:

Ok, it was the only other Drake if not Twilight that I could think of lol

Bear with me, this is the first time I try to make a rhyme riddle

For me to survive

You'll need a full hand

For you to thrive

I should never nap

If you try too hard

You'll lose your mind

Let me be, let me be

I'm silenced and I just die.

Rough AF... But it'll do.

Quote From Fedrion

Oh crap! Yeah, "costs 5 or less" it's a necessity, I totally forgot about Sul'thraze, and that could be a trouble too.

The final card would be:

Any warrior deck could play it this way, without being a Dr. Boom MG staple like card.

You have a new problem, one I foresaw as I watched the conversation unfold: your card has become too complicated. No card in Hearthstone goes beyond four lines of text, and yours has an "orphan" word/number on line 5. I fear this card is just too much trouble, in trying to avoid the problem cases while also remaining interesting + unique.

1. You need to reach Rank 25 not 24

2. Anyway, to play wild you need to reach rank 25 in standard, so if you are 26+, you can't play wild. The moment you reach rank 25, the wild mode will be unblocked, and you begin Range 25 Wild, there isn't ranks 26-50 in wild.

Quote From OldManSanns

Quote From kaladin

so....mindless aggro or nothing?  Kinda seems like I either need to play mindless aggro or......uninstall the game.

I would argue that no deck in Runeterra is mindless--even aggro decks need to weigh what to mulligan, when to open attack, when to trade, how much to hedge against board wipes, etc.

And if you want to try a control deck then by all means go for it--the most successful decks on ladder right now are either Karma + Demacia(Lux)/P&Z(Heimer)/SI or Frej+SI Warmothers Calling.  I just suspect you're going to find those decks even more frustrating than the aggro decks.

I'll give those a look.  Why would you suspect that?  I have always been more a fan of control decks.  Even in my Hearthstone days I pretty much always laddered with slow/control decks.

Oh crap! Yeah, "costs 5 or less" it's a necessity, I totally forgot about Sul'thraze, and that could be a trouble too.

The final card would be:

Any warrior deck could play it this way, without being a Dr. Boom MG staple like card.

I'm 99% sure I played him at least once in an Expedition and he entered the board with the buff intact. So at the very least, it's not like his printed card effect doesn't work. However, I guess his effect may also trigger the way meisterz described, which clearly looks like a bug.

This is a very interesting take. I've never seen somebody consider the intended representation of the classes in terms of 'flavour' before, but I suppose it makes sense to look at that when you consider that the year as a whole was a story this time.

I suppose that objectively I can agree that over the year the EVIL classes had the more obvious, splashy cards to get people excited about - with the Galakronds tipping the scales at the end. Generally though, we saw every class get a Quest, and every class have a main member represented across the two first expansions.

In terms of actual excitement to play classes, I can't really agree with the premise though.

Lucentbark Druid, Oblivitron and Nine Lives Mech Hunter, Cyclone Mage, Big Spell Mage with Power of Creation and Kalecgos, Conjurer's Calling Giants Mage, Quest Druid (with so many other cards), Combo Druid, Highlander Hunter, Quest Hunter, Big Spell Mage with Tortollan Pilgrim and Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron, Embiggen Druid, Dragon Druid (along with so many other cards), Dragon Hunter (again, so many other cards), Mech Paladin.

Those are all decks that I've been super excited for over the course of the year for the various Explorer classes. Those aren't even all the decks that came out of this year for those classes; equally, there were plenty of EVIL class decks I was interested in.

I don't see any imbalance in how the classes played out in terms of exciting cards. Flavourfully important cards, a little, but not excitement or powerlevel (overall - Shaman obviously had a bit of an outlier for a couple weeks or so).

As someone who kept everything, I know that would put a smile on my face, but I fully understand those who dusted their Wild collection.

I suppose it is fine as long as the existing Standard format remains the same (give or take a few changes to Classic as usual), and the 'new Standard' is a 3rd format. 

There's a big difference between "possible" and "not guaranteed": I'm (or rather, Blizzard is not) saying that you can't find Legendaries in the fist 10 packs, but that they're not guaranteed.

Then it didn't take for my main or alt account, bought 10 of each set I hadn't already opened and got a legendary for each set.  Total of 6 sets across the 2 accounts.

This year definitely felt like a year where Blizzard just threw stuff at the wall and tried seeing what stuck and what didn't. First-time cards have rotated early, first-time buffs have happened since the release of the game, first-time trying to have an overarching story for the sets, first-time bringing back old mechanics in the exact same form, it's surprising how much stuff actually happened this year that has never happened before in the history of the game. While they definitely flew too close to the sun for some of these, such as the buffs to Extra Arms and Luna's Pocket Galaxy, as well as some cards being overly pushed, I think it went fairly well considering all the stuff they tried pushing. Anyway, time to talk about some of the points you brought up in your post.

The Underrepresentation of Good Classes

I think it's hard to argue that good classes got the same representation that the EVIL classes got at the beginning of the year, but I am not really sure how else Blizzard would be able to tie in the League of Explorers to Rise of Shadows story-wise. It wouldn't make much sense to have the League already be visiting Dalaran when the attack starts, nor does it make sense for them to respond quickly enough to be present in Dalaran to be featured on cards. Blizzard got stuck between choosing flavor or function, deciding to go with flavor to tie in the whole storyline. Could the story have been rewritten to be able to include the League? Probably, but then the expansion focuses more on setting the stage and instead of the "Rise of Shadows". The next expansion should have focused on giving the good guys the same representation that the EVIL classes got at first, which as you pointed out, didn't happen.

Zephrys the Great is one of the three mistakes I think Blizzard made in its expansion structure. Out of all the sets that borrowed the previous set's mechanics, the only one that did not have any throwback card was Mean Streets of Gadgetstan, which in my eyes will always be an LoE mechanic. This would have been a perfect time to bring back the tri-class cards, but instead of being tri-class, make it align with good/evil. There was never a timeline where Zephrys worked for the bad guys so it makes perfect sense to me for Zephrys to be locked. Maybe they thought Zephrys would be too strong to be restricted/too hard to build around to take advantage of? Who knows.

Descent of Dragons is where the two other mistakes come in, with these being Dragonqueen Alexstraza and Galakrond. Dr. Boom and Hagatha already proved that not having every class have a hero card would cause an imbalance in what classes can go late game. Ignoring the fact a lot of the Galakrond cards were pushed, giving 5 classes an extra (and playable) legendary just would make balancing harder. Dragonqueen is a mistake for the same reasons why I think Zephrys is a mistake, so I won't go much into that.

I'd say that the underrepresentation at the beginning was fine, it happens all the time in other card games, such as Magic the Gathering not always having support for certain color pairing in standard all the time, but they missed their chances at making the good classes interesting.

The Issues with the Meta

The main issues with the meta come down to Blizzard pushing for new cards too hard. Every expansion in Year of the Raven had someone making a joke about how all the cards were awful, coining names like Dustwood, Dustday, and I can't remember the one for Rastakahn's Rumble on the top of my head, but that one got clowned on hard. Having underpowered sets then means less hype and fewer people buying packs, so Blizzard pushed back with a year that has almost enough power creep to rival Year of the Mammoth, which introduced three sets that were all incredibly pushed. It's an awkward spot where Blizzard really shouldn't print better cards next year, and go back to the power level of Year of the Raven (which aside from Genn, Baku and Dr. Boom, was all well balanced) and stick with it for a year so standard becomes more of a lower power level.

Summary

This year had its highs and lows, but overall I'd say it was an improvement over past years. This year felt a lot more like it was a kicking off point for the future of the game. Sure they flew too close to the sun sometimes, but if they continue down this road of trying what works and what doesn't, it will be helpful for the long run of the game.

Quote From kaladin

so....mindless aggro or nothing?  Kinda seems like I either need to play mindless aggro or......uninstall the game.

I would argue that no deck in Runeterra is mindless--even aggro decks need to weigh what to mulligan, when to open attack, when to trade, how much to hedge against board wipes, etc.

And if you want to try a control deck then by all means go for it--the most successful decks on ladder right now are either Karma + Demacia(Lux)/P&Z(Heimer)/SI or Frej+SI Warmothers Calling.  I just suspect you're going to find those decks even more frustrating than the aggro decks.

The biggest letdown was not giving all the Explorer classes playable hero cards in Galakrond's Awakening. They gave away 5 hero cards to the E.V.I.L. classes, and left the Explorers hanging. They even made you think that was what they were going to do be showing The Amazing Reno as one of the first reveals.

The first free wing of the adventure should have given hero cards for all the explorers. Giving each class a hero card to play with going into the new year. 

Instead, I'm left concerned about the effect Galakrond, and the lackey package is going to have on the meta come rotation. 

Quote From Fedrion

Ok, it's taking form.

The idea of discovering it's because I don't like the fact that almost everything is RNG, and having at least a little bit of control in the creation can avoid a lot of headaches.

I was thinking of the cost, and I feel that 6 is still a bit OP, but maybe adding the line "with half the stats" would balance it? Not really sure though.

What about "Discover two Warrior weapons that cost 5 or less"...?

That would remove the troublesome Gorehowl from being an option, and allow you to drop the cost restriction on the new card that is created. This would force the player through discover to think about the cost of the card they are discovering, instead of just automatically grab the highest stats. I think it would make it more along the lines of Deathstalker Rexxar's hero power when it comes to combining 2 cards into 1. 

Quote From DestroyerR

Fun fact: I didn’t even realize it was HoF lol 

(┛ಠ_ಠ)┛彡┻━┻

I don't think they would do that. That would alienate a lot of players, and honestly makes no sense. It hurts Standard players, it hurts returning players, and it completely eviscerates new players.

What they might do is implement a third Ranked mode, with rotating sets like Arena and the Brawl Block tavern brawls. A lot of people want that.

Quote From K1ngMrglMrgl

Nop, Classic it's part of the stantar and the wild, that's why 

In this meaning every set is part of the wild

@Fedrion is correct, it was Azure Drake! Fun fact: I didn’t even realize it was HoF lol 

6x epic, 3x golden rare, no legendaries.

I'm surprised Wild only packs contains classic packs. Maybe this is a hint of changing the classic set?