However, I think the combo potential in the mid-late game somewhat makes up for it. In my most recent Exploration trial, I got to 6 wins with an Ezreal/Lux spell deck. It was an absolute blast to play, too. This might be harder to pull off in high-skill ranked matches, but I'd caution against overreacting at this point.
The problem is, you never get to mid/late game. With this deck, you are dead in first 5 turns more often than not. But I agree the combos are insane later on.
You forgot Mystic Shot and Get Excited! the cheapest cards that can damage the nexus, Thermogenic Beam probably one of the best removal spells in the game in terms of flexibility.
I didnt forget about other spells , but Mystic Shot is still just 2 damage, Thermogenic Beam is really good, BUT it´s a slow spell which is a huge disadvantage , it costs all of your mana, and if enemy has Deny ( Which he most probably has ) you can surrender. And let´s not bring up Get Excited, as it is for Zaun discard decks like Jinx Draven.
The region's spell strength is it's the ability to end the game from hand, no other region has as many direct damage spells, other regions spells are restricted to unit damage only. most of them were free targeted but got nerfed by how good it is was to damage the nexus from hand.
You might end the game from hand, but Shadow Isles can do that aswell and theyre much better at it. And my point still stands, that Piltover sucks in the early game, which is the most important thing right now - you need early game and setup your board. Which is nearly imposibble, as Piltover doesn´t have early game followers and if they do, they are weak with some sort of a twist usually. If you play Piltover against Ionia or aggro , you can surrender as you have very slim chances of winning.
I tried different combinations of regions and decks for Piltover to make it work, the best I got was 44% winrate. In comparison, when I played meta decks like Isles + Noxus, Ionia + Isles , I was always around 90% winrate... It´s insane.
We're 1 week in and there's already a bunch of threads debating whether or not Card X is overpowered or Y needs a nerf, so I thought it might be a Friday Fun topic to flip those conversations around and ask: which cards are you underwhelmed by? What do you think is unplayable and/or could really use a buff?
I'll start. I think Vladimir is the least impressive card in the set by a mile, followed by Kalista at a distant 2nd. Both are nonexistent on ladder. They're both champions--unlike say Mistwraith, where you can make the claim that the card is niche and isn't intended to be significant, these cards are suppose to be the high-impact tent poles that you build your decks around.
For Vlad: I like their commitment to theme, but in practice dealing 1 damage to ALL your attacking minions BEFORE the opponent declares blockers is extremely costly, and the benefit of dealing a little nexus damage just isn't worth it. He doesn't fit aggro strategies--he's too expensive--and he doesn't really fit tempo strategies because he just makes it too easy for your opponent to value trade. I have seen theorycraft decks where you try to leverage his effect across pain-loving Frejlord minions, but they're basically a lot of setup for the chance at one big swing--way too slow for any conceivable meta, and even if you do somehow pull it off you don't have overwhelm so you're vulnerable to chump blocks. They did at least buff him in the last patch such that his level up now includes damage to himself, but even if you level him he's just a 6/6 regen--basically a Level 2 Garen without the attack tokens.
For Kalista: her bond use to make her invulnerable but they nerfed it to just giving +2/+0 for as long as she's alive and gave her fearsome. The big problem here is that she still only has 2 health, so she dies to pretty much anything: challenger, mystic shot, avalanche, any blocker with 3+ attack, etc. I don't think she's as bad as Vlad as you can at least still slot a few copies of her in any aggro-oriented deck and basically just use her as a well-statted 3-drop, but as peoples' collections fill out and better options become available I think she stops making the cut.
Full disclosure: I have opened 1 Vlad and 2 Kalista from my champions modules, so I am definitely biased. :-P What cards do you think are "teh weaksauce"?
This decision was taken many months ago, Even before the 1K avatars were announced. I’m perfectly happy with just unranked, adventure and BG. The last 200-300 games ranked/arena were just to be “finished” with it :
Well, it doesn't mean the team is shrinking, you don't know maybe they hired more people, the fact that the main guy leaves doesn't mean he isn't replaced.
Mike was, for the last 2 years, the face of HS just like Ben Brode was until witchwood it doesn't tell much about the actual state of mind..
What does tell is those glaring bugs they don't bother to fix.. that's another story...
I have been trying to experiment with stuff one of them is poros, sadly I don't have all the poro cards or a third braum, but I tried to play it, I am quite sure it's not good enough and I am more unsure which second region fits the poro decks..
didn't get to play them in the preview, but I saw fluff got nerfed(think it was from 5 mana to 6) so there is probably a viable build somehow..
I've seen essentially this same comment posted literally every time a major member of the team leaves. And yet Hearthstone has continually gotten better and better over time. So I'm very far from worried. Hearthstone is a cash cow that takes FAR fewer development resources than any of their other games.
There are a lot of ways to play Hearthstone, and I’m not going to tell anyone that the way they choose for themselves is right or wrong. But if you enjoyed ranked play enough to rack up 9500 wins, are you going to miss it? (Remember that Arena wins are counted in that total, too.)
If you decide you’d rather direct your OCD to something like “collect every monthly cardback”, you’ll need to make that decision today
After 2 days of very aggro decks (mech pally, face hunters, ...) this last day of ladder was full of druids in ranks 1-3. So I made a deck to specifically beat them and it worked way better than I expected.
I got 12 wins a row to get to legend, knocking down 6 embiggen druids on the way. Si I decided to forget about my statistics course and call it 100% win ;)
I'm not saying I'm a master deck builder (I'm usually pretty bad when I make my own decks) and I suppose many people have similar decks already. But if you like playing rogue and face too many druids, try this version!
About 3 days ago I realized that I was still on rank 10 and that I hadn't played any ranked this season. As of today I am still on rank 10. I don't think I will make rank 5 by the end of the month.
I may forget about ranking up in hearthstone, I like getting the golden epic, but frankly I hate laddering and the rewards always feel underwhelming anyway.
Little suggestion: could you put the article rating option at the bottom of the article too? Saves you from scrolling all the way to the top, especially on phone.
Almost 4 years ago, shortly after I started playing. The first legendary I saved up to craft was Illidan Stormrage because I thought it would be good in my Zoolock Deck, and I felt it was wrong to not have Illidan in my collection because my son is named Illidan.
Have never used the card once...
Blizzard: When will you do this amazing character justice and give him an actually playable card?
You win at child naming
I can't take credit. That would be his mother's idea.
I think part of the problem is that P&Z decks require a much larger collection than most players have right now. During the preview patch my favorite deck was an Ionia/P&Z spell deck, mainly built around Heimerdinger, Ezreal and Karma. It was by far my favorite deck during the preview patch and it felt pretty strong at the time as well because of its high flexibility in play style and win condition. That is why I've chosen P&Z as the region I first wanted to level because I wanted to get heimerdinger and Ezreal, but sadly I got Jinx and Teemo from the champion capsules. Still, only one Heimerdinger and Ezreal are still not enough to build a deck around them.
And as DoubleSummon already mentioned, Mystic Shot and Thermogenic Beam are both among the most flexible spells in the game.
I can only agree with Demon’s sentiments. I write the Hearthstone Standard Meta Report every week and it’s been a wonderful experience so far.
GO FOR IT
Writing about the game you love is exciting, fulfilling and fun, but most important, it deepens your knowledge of the game to an almost extreme degree. I now feel like a true, contributing member of the Hearthstone / card game community, which is a real blessing for a loner like myself. Plus, everyone at outof.cards is a joy to work with.
Hearthstone Masters Tour Arlington Survival Guide
The tournament brackets can be found here. We'll add the decks of top 8 to the site later on.
[Game] Card Treasure Hunt (The Resurrection Attempt)
I mean it's a popular from a Baku the Mooneater deck. Maybe not anymore (I don't play Wild), but it was back in 2018.
Piltover Spell Decks
The problem is, you never get to mid/late game. With this deck, you are dead in first 5 turns more often than not. But I agree the combos are insane later on.
Piltover Spell Decks
I didnt forget about other spells , but Mystic Shot is still just 2 damage, Thermogenic Beam is really good, BUT it´s a slow spell which is a huge disadvantage , it costs all of your mana, and if enemy has Deny ( Which he most probably has ) you can surrender. And let´s not bring up Get Excited, as it is for Zaun discard decks like Jinx Draven.
You might end the game from hand, but Shadow Isles can do that aswell and theyre much better at it. And my point still stands, that Piltover sucks in the early game, which is the most important thing right now - you need early game and setup your board. Which is nearly imposibble, as Piltover doesn´t have early game followers and if they do, they are weak with some sort of a twist usually. If you play Piltover against Ionia or aggro , you can surrender as you have very slim chances of winning.
I tried different combinations of regions and decks for Piltover to make it work, the best I got was 44% winrate. In comparison, when I played meta decks like Isles + Noxus, Ionia + Isles , I was always around 90% winrate... It´s insane.
Which cards do you think are the most UNDERpowered?
We're 1 week in and there's already a bunch of threads debating whether or not Card X is overpowered or Y needs a nerf, so I thought it might be a Friday Fun topic to flip those conversations around and ask: which cards are you underwhelmed by? What do you think is unplayable and/or could really use a buff?
I'll start. I think Vladimir is the least impressive card in the set by a mile, followed by Kalista at a distant 2nd. Both are nonexistent on ladder. They're both champions--unlike say Mistwraith, where you can make the claim that the card is niche and isn't intended to be significant, these cards are suppose to be the high-impact tent poles that you build your decks around.
For Vlad: I like their commitment to theme, but in practice dealing 1 damage to ALL your attacking minions BEFORE the opponent declares blockers is extremely costly, and the benefit of dealing a little nexus damage just isn't worth it. He doesn't fit aggro strategies--he's too expensive--and he doesn't really fit tempo strategies because he just makes it too easy for your opponent to value trade. I have seen theorycraft decks where you try to leverage his effect across pain-loving Frejlord minions, but they're basically a lot of setup for the chance at one big swing--way too slow for any conceivable meta, and even if you do somehow pull it off you don't have overwhelm so you're vulnerable to chump blocks. They did at least buff him in the last patch such that his level up now includes damage to himself, but even if you level him he's just a 6/6 regen--basically a Level 2 Garen without the attack tokens.
For Kalista: her bond use to make her invulnerable but they nerfed it to just giving +2/+0 for as long as she's alive and gave her fearsome. The big problem here is that she still only has 2 health, so she dies to pretty much anything: challenger, mystic shot, avalanche, any blocker with 3+ attack, etc. I don't think she's as bad as Vlad as you can at least still slot a few copies of her in any aggro-oriented deck and basically just use her as a well-statted 3-drop, but as peoples' collections fill out and better options become available I think she stops making the cut.
Full disclosure: I have opened 1 Vlad and 2 Kalista from my champions modules, so I am definitely biased. :-P What cards do you think are "teh weaksauce"?
Hearthstone's January Season is Ending Soon! Get Your Shoring Up Card Back
This decision was taken many months ago, Even before the 1K avatars were announced. I’m perfectly happy with just unranked, adventure and BG. The last 200-300 games ranked/arena were just to be “finished” with it :
Mike Donais Leaves the Hearthstone Team, Remains at Blizzard
Well, it doesn't mean the team is shrinking, you don't know maybe they hired more people, the fact that the main guy leaves doesn't mean he isn't replaced.
Mike was, for the last 2 years, the face of HS just like Ben Brode was until witchwood it doesn't tell much about the actual state of mind..
What does tell is those glaring bugs they don't bother to fix.. that's another story...
Viable Poro deck?
I have been trying to experiment with stuff one of them is poros, sadly I don't have all the poro cards or a third braum, but I tried to play it, I am quite sure it's not good enough and I am more unsure which second region fits the poro decks..
didn't get to play them in the preview, but I saw fluff got nerfed(think it was from 5 mana to 6) so there is probably a viable build somehow..
this is what I have so far:
Mike Donais Leaves the Hearthstone Team, Remains at Blizzard
I've seen essentially this same comment posted literally every time a major member of the team leaves. And yet Hearthstone has continually gotten better and better over time. So I'm very far from worried. Hearthstone is a cash cow that takes FAR fewer development resources than any of their other games.
Hearthstone's January Season is Ending Soon! Get Your Shoring Up Card Back
Wow.
There are a lot of ways to play Hearthstone, and I’m not going to tell anyone that the way they choose for themselves is right or wrong. But if you enjoyed ranked play enough to rack up 9500 wins, are you going to miss it? (Remember that Arena wins are counted in that total, too.)
If you decide you’d rather direct your OCD to something like “collect every monthly cardback”, you’ll need to make that decision today
My take on anti druid galakrond rogue, 100% winrate to legend.
After 2 days of very aggro decks (mech pally, face hunters, ...) this last day of ladder was full of druids in ranks 1-3. So I made a deck to specifically beat them and it worked way better than I expected.
I got 12 wins a row to get to legend, knocking down 6 embiggen druids on the way. Si I decided to forget about my statistics course and call it 100% win ;)
I'm not saying I'm a master deck builder (I'm usually pretty bad when I make my own decks) and I suppose many people have similar decks already. But if you like playing rogue and face too many druids, try this version!
Wild · Galakrond Rogue · by Gwavana · 6 years, 7 months ago
If this helps someone, I'll be happy.
Hearthstone's January Season is Ending Soon! Get Your Shoring Up Card Back
About 3 days ago I realized that I was still on rank 10 and that I hadn't played any ranked this season. As of today I am still on rank 10. I don't think I will make rank 5 by the end of the month.
I may forget about ranking up in hearthstone, I like getting the golden epic, but frankly I hate laddering and the rewards always feel underwhelming anyway.
A Letter From Flux - February Plans, Looking Back on January, Content Squad Recruitment
What about Gwent, the witcher card game?
A Letter From Flux - February Plans, Looking Back on January, Content Squad Recruitment
Little suggestion: could you put the article rating option at the bottom of the article too? Saves you from scrolling all the way to the top, especially on phone.
A Letter From Flux - February Plans, Looking Back on January, Content Squad Recruitment
I like Runeterra coverage
I started the game thanks to it and enjoying Runeterra quite a lot
That moment you know you have a bad idea
don't have your hopes up, I doubt they will nerf that card the deck was balanced before a certain elusive beast came around.
Dragon Reno Priest
Thank you! I wasn't sure how to format it, but I think I covered the important stuff.
A Letter From Flux - February Plans, Looking Back on January, Content Squad Recruitment
Excited for your plans to support HSBG. There are some content creators out there, but not many, and they're difficult to find.
Mike Donais Leaves the Hearthstone Team, Remains at Blizzard
Sad, sure. But also good for mike. This is clearly a promotion.
A Letter From Flux - February Plans, Looking Back on January, Content Squad Recruitment
This is all fantastic! Looking forward to everything you're bringing in 2020!
Now I must find some time to create a sample article to apply as a content creator!
That moment you know you have a bad idea
I can't take credit. That would be his mother's idea.
Hearthstone Masters Tour Arlington Survival Guide
Ugh, gotta remember to go to YouTube now. I hope their Google paycheck was worth it.
Piltover Spell Decks
I think part of the problem is that P&Z decks require a much larger collection than most players have right now. During the preview patch my favorite deck was an Ionia/P&Z spell deck, mainly built around Heimerdinger, Ezreal and Karma. It was by far my favorite deck during the preview patch and it felt pretty strong at the time as well because of its high flexibility in play style and win condition. That is why I've chosen P&Z as the region I first wanted to level because I wanted to get heimerdinger and Ezreal, but sadly I got Jinx and Teemo from the champion capsules. Still, only one Heimerdinger and Ezreal are still not enough to build a deck around them.
And as DoubleSummon already mentioned, Mystic Shot and Thermogenic Beam are both among the most flexible spells in the game.
A Letter From Flux - February Plans, Looking Back on January, Content Squad Recruitment
I can only agree with Demon’s sentiments. I write the Hearthstone Standard Meta Report every week and it’s been a wonderful experience so far.
GO FOR IT
Writing about the game you love is exciting, fulfilling and fun, but most important, it deepens your knowledge of the game to an almost extreme degree. I now feel like a true, contributing member of the Hearthstone / card game community, which is a real blessing for a loner like myself. Plus, everyone at outof.cards is a joy to work with.
Galakrond's Awakening Chapter 2 - Hearthstone Decks to Test Your New Cards
You are totally right. You don't actually need to play the duplicate, just have it in your hand.
Cheers!