As someone who dabbled in Face Hunter for a bit, I will try my best to answer your queries.
Face Hunter is not powerful enough to hold the board for long, so things like Knife Juggler and Secretkeeper do not help us here. We are a Face deck, not a Tempo deck, we do not care about the board much, we just want to pressure our opponent's life. We also do not run that many secrets, so the minions are also quite inconsistent to activate.
To reiterate what other people have said already, Spellzerker helps to give us some much needed burst later on, most likely with Quick Shot and Arcane Shots. Its a cheap and reliable way to deal upwards of 9 damage to your opponent out of nowhere and most importantly, over taunts.
Timber Wolf is a useful card for the reasons already stated as well. It can help to double your Unleash damage out of nowhere and to also act as a Kill Command activator, it is most certainly more useful than a Secretkeeper.
Animal Companion is just so much better than Wolfrider. There are those rare circumstances when the Hail Mary Huffer does not come through, but we always win more any other time, such as when you need a turn 3 play, or a Leokk buff to win very rarely. They are also beasts. As such, Animal Companion helps to win more games overall.
Finally, the Goblin Bombs are just weird. Maybe they are teching more heavily into the Spellzerker idea, or are experimenting as well.
I'm assuming you might be on a budget here, but if you have the cards already, you can always try experimenting with them a bit yourself and see what works for you.
I absolutely adore this card and the idea. I wish they print more of this stuff in the future. Even "select a card from opponent's hand to corrupt" or even "corrupt" as an mechanic.
I kinda like it, solid 2 drop, so you don't have to measly hero power as a paladin. I can see it fit some secret-pala-all-aggro-go-face-win-before-t6-kinda deck.
Looks like a "Reprint" of Gnomeferatu which is one of my favorite cards of all time. But unlike Gnomeferatu, Chaos Gazer gives your opponent the chance to actually play the card before it gets discarded.
This might be bad on paper, but most often your opponent might have wanted to save a card for later. Or a more realistic scenario is that your opponent has lets say 5 mana, and you hit his 4 drop. This means that your opponent has to use that 4 drop instead of putting down a 5 drop, or coin out a 6 drop. (Or just let that get discarded)
I think this card is pretty good overall, fits well in control warlock decks, but might actually fit into some aggro decks as well because of its decent stats, and as a way to annoy control decks, as control & combo decks usually have a bunch of board clears.
(It hits A CARD, meaning it can force out clears. Imagine playing this turn 9 against a priest, who might now debate if he/she should play their hit Plague of Death against a single minion or not, and after which you might play something like... warlock galakrond? Wait it's a demon, so it can actually be summoned by galakrond battlecry! this might probably be a bit of a boost to the stats you get from warlock galakrond's battlecry!)
Gave it 5 stars just for the memes. But I am really interesting to see the hp - and i hope it won't be "Add random spell in your hand. It costs X less".
There's a difference between even a full face hunter deck, and a mindless SMOrc deck. A lot of the people on ladder play the deck like the latter, certainly, but the only reason to build towards that path is if you simply don't have the cards to build a stronger list.
- Spellzerker is for Rapid Fire first and foremost, as AliRadicali suggests above. It also has a little more relevance in the later stages of the game because these hunter decks expect to lose the board at some point - and any juggles hitting minions are worthless to you at that point (and arguably even earlier given your game-plan).
- Animal Companion wins out over Wolfrider because while the deck expects to lose the board at some point, there's no reason to just throw away all board pressure on turn 3 without really being pushed to do so. Note that with Dwarven Sharpshooter and Phase Stalker in these decks you have strong early-game board potential, and remember that controlling the board adds up to more damage over time than just throwing everything at face from turn 1.
- I may be wrong (I haven't spent a lot of time on Hunter stats lately), but my assumption is that Timber Wolf is a two-of because Unleash is often your win condition. You want to be able to reliably burst out after losing board. Specifically in that circumstance, it's doubling your Unleash damage for only 1 additional mana outlay. There may be other benefits I'm not seeing because I don't have the deck in front of me right now.
- EDIT: Didn't see the Bomb Toss question. My answer is I have no idea, other than maybe an alternate late-game plan trying to set up a big Spellzerker turn. It's absolutely not something I'd run, personally, unless I was teching against Mage specifically.
- It's important to recognise that this deck is not a mindless SMOrc deck - and in fact, such decks don't really exist outside of budget ladder-grind decks. Your early game should absolutely be about early board, and getting out Dwarven Sharpshooter and Phase Hunter. Midgame is about minimizing what you have to let through on board while pushing more damage. Late game - which for this deck means around turn 7 or 8 - is where you accept the board is lost and make a push to set up lethal. Accept the loss of board to activate a big Wolf-Unleash and push through everything you can. Knowing when to trade and when to push is a fundamental skill of any aggro deck, and in spite of what memes will tell you, 'always face' is not an acceptable answer.
Potentially better than Shielded Minibot because one can magnetize Divine Shield onto it (with Annoy-o-Module for example) for a really sticky minion. Looks fun.
Hearthstone team seems to accidentally added Dragonmaw Poacher back to arena, Lol. And I have encountered.a bug, of the mage minion, that freezes the target with mage hero power freeze card not freezing the target. Currently shaman run with 4 Dragonmaw poachers and keleseth, wtf is happening?
I am a little concerned that the normal-difficulty version uses a pre-built deck, with only the Heroic versions requiring deckbuilding. It seems like that would significantly lessen the replay value for weaker players.
Warlock - I think you're exaggerating what I'm trying to say. I'm not saying it won't be viable, necessarily. I was simply expressing amusement that a deck that's been viable for a miniscule amount of time, and at no point oppressive, is immediately eating a nerf regardless.
Apothecary - I would agree with you if the current Apothecary-centric Rogue decks were at all tempo-oriented, or indeed, if they ran many combo cards at all. I don't consider that Rogue decks will be disincentivized to run low-cost cards as a result of the change, because their deck's focus hasn't changed at all - the earliest possible turn they can start doing it has shifted back by one turn, and that's all. With so few combo cards in a typical DR Rogue list (meaning limited competition for activators) there really isn't much impact at all.
Regardless, arguments are getting circular. The meta will tell.
It all boils down to whether the card is a win condition, or gets you to your win condition. If it does neither than its just pure stats from then on. This one's not really that bad, despite the constant belittling (my hands are held up high for this one), it just doesn't fit in into the most of the current priest archetype of res-ing dead minions. You pointed out some very good minions that you can get off this, if only for Psychopomp to res it back, but if you want to res a good minion, its better to just put it in the deck to begin with.
I appreciate your number crunching though, if nothing else.
Playing an older version you posted on Twitter (+ Vargoth and Lightning Breath, - Bone Wraith and Sandstorm Elemental). The change -lightning breath + sandstorm elemental seems reasonable to me. However, is - Vargoth + Bone Wraith better ? You miss an option for double Dragons Pack, Sheme, lightning storm, far sight, hunting visions + spells created by Hagatha...
Too many people claim it's a bad card but I don't understand why is it a bad card and doesn't "Fit any deck" also saw some comments "combo priest have no space for such card" wow those comments are really annoying saw such comments about EVIL Quartermaster here if a deck has no space for a card MAKE A NEW DECK.. as simple as that..
Anyway I will gauge the average 2 drop you might get will split it into 5 categories in a combo priest deck where hp or taunt are really important:
high, medium,low,terrible,situational won't state every option but some examples: (disclaimer I did it manually so I might have counted something in 2 categories, or missed some this is an estimation)
High: 4+ drop stats, useful ability,good res target([Hearthstone Card (psychopump) Not Found]).
Total: 86 options (the number of 2 drops for priest + neutrals)
now the chances for each category are: 5/86,36/86,36/86,1/86,8/86
Wanted result at least one from high tier or mid tier (41/86 per card) out of 3 options without repeating: 13% - the chance to get less than a 3/5 or 2/5
So all in all it seems the average result is from the mid tier the chance to get a totally bad pick is kind of low, and when you get one from the high tier you are quite pleased..
What I don't understand every reveal season is why people think every single card needs to win you the game on the spot, this card has good value, gives on average a decently stated minion which combo priest can use very well.. people forgot how strong combo priest was in uldum it seem.. not to mention that the 2/7 legendary still exists not sure if you play this and the other card you get a X/7 or a X/10 though..
I don't think this will see much play. Could be interesting in tournaments though - nobody expects you to run that one. Might find a spot in control decks, just like Gnomeferatu.
Crafted floop's Glorious Gloop for this deck, played 5 games 3 against zoo, 1 against quest hunter and 1 Galakrond Shaman. Couldn't win even a single game, deck looks fun but in this aggressive meta i doubt if its gonna work.
Aggro Hunter cards.
As someone who dabbled in Face Hunter for a bit, I will try my best to answer your queries.
Face Hunter is not powerful enough to hold the board for long, so things like Knife Juggler and Secretkeeper do not help us here. We are a Face deck, not a Tempo deck, we do not care about the board much, we just want to pressure our opponent's life. We also do not run that many secrets, so the minions are also quite inconsistent to activate.
To reiterate what other people have said already, Spellzerker helps to give us some much needed burst later on, most likely with Quick Shot and Arcane Shots. Its a cheap and reliable way to deal upwards of 9 damage to your opponent out of nowhere and most importantly, over taunts.
Timber Wolf is a useful card for the reasons already stated as well. It can help to double your Unleash damage out of nowhere and to also act as a Kill Command activator, it is most certainly more useful than a Secretkeeper.
Animal Companion is just so much better than Wolfrider. There are those rare circumstances when the Hail Mary Huffer does not come through, but we always win more any other time, such as when you need a turn 3 play, or a Leokk buff to win very rarely. They are also beasts. As such, Animal Companion helps to win more games overall.
Finally, the Goblin Bombs are just weird. Maybe they are teching more heavily into the Spellzerker idea, or are experimenting as well.
I'm assuming you might be on a budget here, but if you have the cards already, you can always try experimenting with them a bit yourself and see what works for you.
January Card Nerfs Are Live, Along With Battlegrounds Buffs - Hearthstone Patch 16.0.8
Aggro Hunter is easy to Counter. If you face a lot of them, it will make for easy climbing :)
New Warlock Minion - Chaos Gazer
I absolutely adore this card and the idea. I wish they print more of this stuff in the future. Even "select a card from opponent's hand to corrupt" or even "corrupt" as an mechanic.
Joe "joemag" Magdalena Leaves the Hearthstone Team
Please excuse my ignorance but who is this guy? This is the first I've ever heard of him.
New Paladin Minion - Shotbot
I kinda like it, solid 2 drop, so you don't have to measly hero power as a paladin. I can see it fit some secret-pala-all-aggro-go-face-win-before-t6-kinda deck.
New Warlock Minion - Chaos Gazer
Looks like a "Reprint" of Gnomeferatu which is one of my favorite cards of all time. But unlike Gnomeferatu, Chaos Gazer gives your opponent the chance to actually play the card before it gets discarded.
This might be bad on paper, but most often your opponent might have wanted to save a card for later. Or a more realistic scenario is that your opponent has lets say 5 mana, and you hit his 4 drop. This means that your opponent has to use that 4 drop instead of putting down a 5 drop, or coin out a 6 drop. (Or just let that get discarded)
I think this card is pretty good overall, fits well in control warlock decks, but might actually fit into some aggro decks as well because of its decent stats, and as a way to annoy control decks, as control & combo decks usually have a bunch of board clears.
(It hits A CARD, meaning it can force out clears. Imagine playing this turn 9 against a priest, who might now debate if he/she should play their hit Plague of Death against a single minion or not, and after which you might play something like... warlock galakrond? Wait it's a demon, so it can actually be summoned by galakrond battlecry! this might probably be a bit of a boost to the stats you get from warlock galakrond's battlecry!)
New Priest Spell - Dark Prophecy
I think they are getting really serious about HoFing Divine spirit :(((((
New Mage Hero - The Amazing Reno
Gave it 5 stars just for the memes. But I am really interesting to see the hp - and i hope it won't be "Add random spell in your hand. It costs X less".
Aggro Hunter cards.
There's a difference between even a full face hunter deck, and a mindless SMOrc deck. A lot of the people on ladder play the deck like the latter, certainly, but the only reason to build towards that path is if you simply don't have the cards to build a stronger list.
- Spellzerker is for Rapid Fire first and foremost, as AliRadicali suggests above. It also has a little more relevance in the later stages of the game because these hunter decks expect to lose the board at some point - and any juggles hitting minions are worthless to you at that point (and arguably even earlier given your game-plan).
- Animal Companion wins out over Wolfrider because while the deck expects to lose the board at some point, there's no reason to just throw away all board pressure on turn 3 without really being pushed to do so. Note that with Dwarven Sharpshooter and Phase Stalker in these decks you have strong early-game board potential, and remember that controlling the board adds up to more damage over time than just throwing everything at face from turn 1.
- I may be wrong (I haven't spent a lot of time on Hunter stats lately), but my assumption is that Timber Wolf is a two-of because Unleash is often your win condition. You want to be able to reliably burst out after losing board. Specifically in that circumstance, it's doubling your Unleash damage for only 1 additional mana outlay. There may be other benefits I'm not seeing because I don't have the deck in front of me right now.
- EDIT: Didn't see the Bomb Toss question. My answer is I have no idea, other than maybe an alternate late-game plan trying to set up a big Spellzerker turn. It's absolutely not something I'd run, personally, unless I was teching against Mage specifically.
- It's important to recognise that this deck is not a mindless SMOrc deck - and in fact, such decks don't really exist outside of budget ladder-grind decks. Your early game should absolutely be about early board, and getting out Dwarven Sharpshooter and Phase Hunter. Midgame is about minimizing what you have to let through on board while pushing more damage. Late game - which for this deck means around turn 7 or 8 - is where you accept the board is lost and make a push to set up lethal. Accept the loss of board to activate a big Wolf-Unleash and push through everything you can.
Knowing when to trade and when to push is a fundamental skill of any aggro deck, and in spite of what memes will tell you, 'always face' is not an acceptable answer.
New Paladin Minion - Shotbot
Potentially better than Shielded Minibot because one can magnetize Divine Shield onto it (with Annoy-o-Module for example) for a really sticky minion. Looks fun.
Dragonmaw Poacher and arena
Hearthstone team seems to accidentally added Dragonmaw Poacher back to arena, Lol. And I have encountered.a bug, of the mage minion, that freezes the target with mage hero power freeze card not freezing the target. Currently shaman run with 4 Dragonmaw poachers and keleseth, wtf is happening?
Card Nerf - Dragonqueen Alexstrasza
She still can generate dragons that can discover her (like the druid 4/8 taunt or hunter 2/3 poison or the paladin 2/3 lifesteal)
4 New Cards Revealed from Hearthstone's New Galakrond's Awakening Solo Content - Launches January 21
I am a little concerned that the normal-difficulty version uses a pre-built deck, with only the Heroic versions requiring deckbuilding. It seems like that would significantly lessen the replay value for weaker players.
4 New Cards Revealed from Hearthstone's New Galakrond's Awakening Solo Content - Launches January 21
I'm still upset at how freaking long we had to wait for the solo content... Either i use my gold to buy packs, or i keep it for the solo...
4 New Cards Revealed from Hearthstone's New Galakrond's Awakening Solo Content - Launches January 21
Because Priests really need more misery right now? O.o
7 Hearthstone Cards are Getting Nerfed! The January Hearthstone Balance Patch Notes with Battlegrounds Changes
Warlock - I think you're exaggerating what I'm trying to say. I'm not saying it won't be viable, necessarily. I was simply expressing amusement that a deck that's been viable for a miniscule amount of time, and at no point oppressive, is immediately eating a nerf regardless.
Apothecary - I would agree with you if the current Apothecary-centric Rogue decks were at all tempo-oriented, or indeed, if they ran many combo cards at all. I don't consider that Rogue decks will be disincentivized to run low-cost cards as a result of the change, because their deck's focus hasn't changed at all - the earliest possible turn they can start doing it has shifted back by one turn, and that's all. With so few combo cards in a typical DR Rogue list (meaning limited competition for activators) there really isn't much impact at all.
Regardless, arguments are getting circular. The meta will tell.
New Priest Spell - Dark Prophecy
It all boils down to whether the card is a win condition, or gets you to your win condition. If it does neither than its just pure stats from then on. This one's not really that bad, despite the constant belittling (my hands are held up high for this one), it just doesn't fit in into the most of the current priest archetype of res-ing dead minions. You pointed out some very good minions that you can get off this, if only for Psychopomp to res it back, but if you want to res a good minion, its better to just put it in the deck to begin with.
I appreciate your number crunching though, if nothing else.
New Mage Hero - The Amazing Reno
Hero Power will be: "Summon a 1-2 Flamewaker"
[64% WR] Highlander Control Shaman
Thank you for this deck!
Playing an older version you posted on Twitter (+ Vargoth and Lightning Breath, - Bone Wraith and Sandstorm Elemental). The change -lightning breath + sandstorm elemental seems reasonable to me. However, is - Vargoth + Bone Wraith better ? You miss an option for double Dragons Pack, Sheme, lightning storm, far sight, hunting visions + spells created by Hagatha...
The Hearthstone Team Acknowledges Their Fluffy Overlords
Those Scion of Ruin are forever Fluffy Kibler-Dragons to me!
New Priest Spell - Dark Prophecy
Too many people claim it's a bad card but I don't understand why is it a bad card and doesn't "Fit any deck" also saw some comments "combo priest have no space for such card" wow those comments are really annoying saw such comments about EVIL Quartermaster here if a deck has no space for a card MAKE A NEW DECK.. as simple as that..
Anyway I will gauge the average 2 drop you might get will split it into 5 categories in a combo priest deck where hp or taunt are really important:
high, medium,low,terrible,situational won't state every option but some examples: (disclaimer I did it manually so I might have counted something in 2 categories, or missed some this is an estimation)
High: 4+ drop stats, useful ability,good res target([Hearthstone Card (psychopump) Not Found]).
Millhouse Manastorm, Injured Tol'vir,Booty Bay Bookie,Wild Pyromancer,Amani Berserker
Total: 5
Medium: 3/5s 2/6s, have taunt/stealth/divine shield
Total: 36
low: 1/4 2/4 2/5 or bad effect
Total: 36
terrible: Doomsayer (Cause of [Hearthstone Card (psychopump) Not Found]) total:1
situational:
Faerie Dragon and [Hearthstone Card (evasive chimera) Not Found] good tempo, but you can't divine spirit/inner fire them
Ancient Watcher(if you have silence in hand.. they might want to kill it and you gain tempo).
Bluegill Warrior - for surprise lethals
Bloodmage Thalnos and Loot Hoarder for card draw.
Other 2.
Total: 8
Total: 86 options (the number of 2 drops for priest + neutrals)
now the chances for each category are: 5/86,36/86,36/86,1/86,8/86
Wanted result at least one from high tier or mid tier (41/86 per card) out of 3 options without repeating: 13% - the chance to get less than a 3/5 or 2/5
So all in all it seems the average result is from the mid tier the chance to get a totally bad pick is kind of low, and when you get one from the high tier you are quite pleased..
What I don't understand every reveal season is why people think every single card needs to win you the game on the spot, this card has good value, gives on average a decently stated minion which combo priest can use very well.. people forgot how strong combo priest was in uldum it seem.. not to mention that the 2/7 legendary still exists not sure if you play this and the other card you get a X/7 or a X/10 though..
4 New Cards Revealed from Hearthstone's New Galakrond's Awakening Solo Content - Launches January 21
Would be really cool if minions also disappeared from the graveyard. Priests would get the hard counter then.
New Warlock Minion - Chaos Gazer
I don't think this will see much play. Could be interesting in tournaments though - nobody expects you to run that one. Might find a spot in control decks, just like Gnomeferatu.
Joe "joemag" Magdalena Leaves the Hearthstone Team
Haven't Second Dinner put a hiring ad out on twitter one of these days?
Remastered DoD Gonk Druid
Crafted floop's Glorious Gloop for this deck, played 5 games 3 against zoo, 1 against quest hunter and 1 Galakrond Shaman. Couldn't win even a single game, deck looks fun but in this aggressive meta i doubt if its gonna work.