I think this is the meme card of the campaign as of right now. If this was draftable, this could see some play. For Praxis, there isn't a lot of focus on hand buffs. There are some good hand buffs and there is always inspire. I just don't think this will see any play in its state. Most Praxis decks usually play big creatures and/or ramp.
The concept of the card is cool though. I can see why Scarlatch likes it.
Wizards of the Coast just published a cool article that gives us some background on the characters we'll be seeing in Theros: Beyond Death.
The story of Theros is a tale for the ages, and one not to be missed. So, as we move through Theros Beyond Death previews, certain cards will come with a bit of flavor, worldbuilding, or important story moments. We'll collect those story moments right here.
Note that for Theros Beyond Death, there are currently no plans for an ebook, so make sure to check out this page throughout preview season.
PREVIOUSLY, ON THEROS . . .
To fight the sun god Heliod, the forge god Purphoros created a sword capable of damaging the divine. The two gods battled, disrupting the celestial resting place of an ancient and powerful hydra: Polukranos, World Eater. Enraged, the hydra stormed through the mortal realm of Theros until it was sealed by Heliod and the hunt god Nylea.
The Planeswalker Elspeth arrived in Theros during the climax of Heliod and Purphoros's battle. She saw Purphoros' sword flung from his hands, and planeswalked away with it. She returned to Theros fifteen years later and faced an angry Heliod. But the god regained his bearings and realized Elspeth could help him, so he reforged the sword into the spear Godsend. Wielding this weapon, Elspeth was able to defeat the newly awakened Polukranos.
Meanwhlie, the satyr Planeswalker Xenagos had hatched a plan to ascend to godhood. By cultivating belief and devotion among his followers, he was able to transcend mortality and join the other gods in their home of Nyx. Xenagos planned to use his new status for ill, so Elspeth vowed to stop him. She journeyed to Nyx and stabbed Xenagos with Godsend, destroying him once and for all.
Fearful of her power and knowledge of the multiverse, Heliod stabbed Elspeth with her very own weapon, which shattered afterwards. Dying, Elspeth's soul became trapped in the Underworld of Erebos where it remains . . . for now.
I like this answer it is well thought out and I do agree that mid range might get hit the worst but for me with so many board flooding strategies available you can match the removal as all strategies would be affected by such a change including aggro. just it might take you longer to get the right cards which I feel is needed now and for the future of the game.
we have so many disruption tools right now in standard and at the same time so many power spike tools but we simply can't fit them in its like the game has become too fast for some of the types of cards they are releasing. I know they want quicker games for their huge mobile market but they are printing enough cards that can swing the game in any strategies favour.
imo combo would be affected just as the others as again the tools are already their for them to either draw very quickly or to put the cards back in their deck if they draw combo cards too early but deemed bad as we simply do not have the time or space to include them in our decks.
i am not a designer and think that they do a great job with the variety of cards they release but the timing of the game is a little off to really enjoy most of them.
Update: I've played quite a few games with this deck now, and can safely say it is a lot of fun, and ladder viable. I have yet to lose to Shaman with it. It's hilarious watching them have no way around all the face damage. I will be playing this deck at least until the nerfs.
Also, this deck has made me see the potential of Hot Air Balloon. If it's not removed fast, it stays around for a long time.
i really need to ask... is this deck good agaisnt shaman? i know the nerf hammer will hit but i'm so tired of beeing spanked by shamans..
I get where you're coming from, but I'll have to disagree. The entire challenge behind creating a 30 card deck is knowing that you can't include everything that you want.
In the case of Aggro and Tempo, these decks win or lose long before they run out of cards. What they don't draw wouldn't matter, since the cards they added to their deck would simply be more aggro or tempo oriented cards (the ones that barely didn't make the cut).
Midrange decks would probably suffer from such a change. They rely on very specific value cards to carry them through to the end of the game. Sometimes relying on 2-3 card combinations, this would only hurt such a strategy.
Control on the other hand would simply include every board clear that didn't make the cut earlier. Having even more options to slow the game down and destroy everything your opponent plays might be good in the short term, but is unhealthy for game balance.
Combo decks would suffer the most. Having to draw even more cards in order to get exactly what they need to finish the game. It might just remove the archetype from the game or reduce it to "meme" tier.
That is a very good answer sir and I see your logic but for me balance is the thing we are having troubles with. The game just has access to powerful cards and game winning combos much quicker than when it's fundamentals we're designed. The decks have more synergies and ready constructed combos than when the game first came out. Remember that 5 mana demon was around that put legenderies in your deck. It was a lot harder to put your mini combos and synergies together. 5 cards was too much so a bit of pre testing has been done already. I think it's a Shame to release 135 cards and not have more time to play around with them.
The game is built and balanced around having a 30 card deck. Just like having 30 life, it's one of the foundations of the game that can't be tweaked without throwing everything out of balance.
As an additional for-fun side thing? Sure, we can try it out and see if people like it. As a fundamental change to the way the game functions? Absolutely not.
I think one nerf that would go a long way is to remove the word "twice" from Corrupt Elementalist, no need to touch the stats. That alone would go a long way in defusing this situation. That and making the last stage of Galakrond give 6/6s instead of 8/8s should be sufficient.
Update: I've played quite a few games with this deck now, and can safely say it is a lot of fun, and ladder viable. I have yet to lose to Shaman with it. It's hilarious watching them have no way around all the face damage. I will be playing this deck at least until the nerfs.
Also, this deck has made me see the potential of Hot Air Balloon. If it's not removed fast, it stays around for a long time.
The giant Ixtol was the ancient Champion of Grodov, and built the arena that still stands in Xulta today. Prove your skill in single combat during this special event!
Bring a 75-card deck and prepare to battle with this special boss rule:
Your deck can only contain a single copy of all non-power cards! Each player starts with +3 Max Power.
Here’s what you need to know:
This event uses the Throne format.
You must select your deck when you join, and you cannot change decks between games in a run.
The event costs 2,500 Gold or 200 Gems to enter.
Each run is 7 games, win or lose.
You may enter as many times as you like.
There is no leaderboard.
The Ixtol’s Challengers Event will run from Friday 12/20 at 10:00 AM MST (17:00 UTC) to Monday 12/23 at 4:00 PM MST (23:00 UTC)
oh and for you Bonuns....don't. So far Galakrond Priest seems weak, but it could become amazing in any meta where outressourcing your opponent is important, and I don't want another Rexxar/Dr. Boom situation. Delivery Drone has proven that having the choice out of 3 minions will usually give you an outcome to swing the current situation in your favour and Priest has a fairly szeable collection if decently sized minions. Wouldn't want them to throw those out every turn while you struggle to even stay on the board.
For what it's worth, I'm not totally convinced that your comparisons are fair.
I think "Discover a Priest Minion" is inherently a lot weaker than the other two hero powers. In the case of Deathstalker Rexxar, you got to build unusually powerful cards by combining effects that would typically not be together in the interest of balance. If his hero power had simply been "Discover a Beast," he would not have been nearly as oppressive. In the case of Dr. Boom, Mad Genius, there really is no bad mech because every mech has rush. Add to that the fact that several mechs in standard have removal effects (Omega Devastator and Dyn-o-matic for example), and you get a hero power that makes controlling the board trivial. By comparison, Priest minions are often weak and rarely generate the kinds of tempo swings you'd see with Deathstalker Rexxar and Dr. Boom, Mad Genius.
Now, there is some math to suggest that discover could be dangerous. Today there are 41 Priest minions in standard, and if we assert that about 25% of them are generically good (e.g. Catrina Muerte, Murozond the Infinite), then you'd have a shot at picking one of these good minions about 58% of the time. Those are pretty good odds and could make for some major swing turns, but many of those are still at or under vanilla in terms of stats. Even the ones that might provide a lot more tempo above their costs probably can't impact the board immediately (e.g. Murozond the Infinite and Princess Talanji can create big boards, but don't automatically clear your opponent's stuff). So there are lots of cases where getting a high power minion still doesn't auto-win you the game.
All that said, while discover doesn't scare me all that much, I think I'd be satisfied with simply removing some minions from the random pool for Galakrond, so you wouldn't be stuck getting total garbage like Lightwell. Any buff is generally unlikely, but I do think a buff would be important to make this hero power viable - right now it's incredibly easy to get garbage minions like Lightwell or hyper situational minions like Sand Drudge that are hard to get value out of in a deck that isn't built to use them.
I personally don't think there should ever be room in the meta for the kind of extreme aggro deck that relies entirely on getting good draw with no skill and just smashing the face as. That's not fun to play with or play against.
But IMHO the solution is to moderate the aggro options rather than expand the deck size which would mean that control games would take way too long.
I'm not gonna lie I've been very annoyed this expansion which is unusual for me and have actually thought about quitting for good. This is not one of "those" threads but I do feel that the tempo of this game is causing problems and whatever nerfs are made will just push something with better tempo to the top.
Now tempo is a key part of this game, I remember 1 mana Mana Wyrm and I'm not trying to push out aggro at all but I mean even some control and midrange have a strong aggro presence these days. The only thing I think that would slow down general tempo is to increase the deck size. Then maybe we might see some more interesting decks, Aggro may have to include more draw to keep their tempo but I really feel something has to be addressed. What are your thoughts?
Battlegrounds Performance Improvements Coming to Mobile on Tuesday
This year, Winterveil is shaman'ier than ever
The Elder Scrolls: Legends - Allegiance Top 100 Players
Here are the results for the latest Gauntlet event in TESL (yes, there are still players showing up).
Eternal - Promises by Firelight Spoilers Dec. 16
I think this is the meme card of the campaign as of right now. If this was draftable, this could see some play. For Praxis, there isn't a lot of focus on hand buffs. There are some good hand buffs and there is always inspire. I just don't think this will see any play in its state. Most Praxis decks usually play big creatures and/or ramp.
The concept of the card is cool though. I can see why Scarlatch likes it.
MTG Arena - The Theros Story on Cards
Wizards of the Coast just published a cool article that gives us some background on the characters we'll be seeing in Theros: Beyond Death.
Should the deck size be increased to slow down general tempo?
I like this answer it is well thought out and I do agree that mid range might get hit the worst but for me with so many board flooding strategies available you can match the removal as all strategies would be affected by such a change including aggro. just it might take you longer to get the right cards which I feel is needed now and for the future of the game.
we have so many disruption tools right now in standard and at the same time so many power spike tools but we simply can't fit them in its like the game has become too fast for some of the types of cards they are releasing. I know they want quicker games for their huge mobile market but they are printing enough cards that can swing the game in any strategies favour.
imo combo would be affected just as the others as again the tools are already their for them to either draw very quickly or to put the cards back in their deck if they draw combo cards too early but deemed bad as we simply do not have the time or space to include them in our decks.
i am not a designer and think that they do a great job with the variety of cards they release but the timing of the game is a little off to really enjoy most of them.
[Legend] Leprosy SMOrc Hunter
i really need to ask... is this deck good agaisnt shaman? i know the nerf hammer will hit but i'm so tired of beeing spanked by shamans..
Cobalt Spellkin
This card is much better than I thought it would be.. especially good spells for warlock/mage/priest IMO
Eternal - Promises by Firelight Spoilers Dec. 16
New spoiler from Scarlatch on Discord!
Should the deck size be increased to slow down general tempo?
I get where you're coming from, but I'll have to disagree. The entire challenge behind creating a 30 card deck is knowing that you can't include everything that you want.
In the case of Aggro and Tempo, these decks win or lose long before they run out of cards. What they don't draw wouldn't matter, since the cards they added to their deck would simply be more aggro or tempo oriented cards (the ones that barely didn't make the cut).
Midrange decks would probably suffer from such a change. They rely on very specific value cards to carry them through to the end of the game. Sometimes relying on 2-3 card combinations, this would only hurt such a strategy.
Control on the other hand would simply include every board clear that didn't make the cut earlier. Having even more options to slow the game down and destroy everything your opponent plays might be good in the short term, but is unhealthy for game balance.
Combo decks would suffer the most. Having to draw even more cards in order to get exactly what they need to finish the game. It might just remove the archetype from the game or reduce it to "meme" tier.
Galakrond, the Tempest
Used to be OP...
Descent of Dragons Giveaway Results
Shame. Wish I could see my total entries. I commented in a lot of threads but I thought I got them all.
Should the deck size be increased to slow down general tempo?
My albatross priest approves your comment but they only slow down your opponent so it's not equal
Should the deck size be increased to slow down general tempo?
If you want to add cards to your opponent's deck you can play the new Bad Luck Albatross.
Should the deck size be increased to slow down general tempo?
Should the deck size be increased to slow down general tempo?
The game is built and balanced around having a 30 card deck. Just like having 30 life, it's one of the foundations of the game that can't be tweaked without throwing everything out of balance.
As an additional for-fun side thing? Sure, we can try it out and see if people like it. As a fundamental change to the way the game functions? Absolutely not.
Standard Meta Report #15 - Fixing (Yet Another) Shaman Meta
I think one nerf that would go a long way is to remove the word "twice" from Corrupt Elementalist, no need to touch the stats. That alone would go a long way in defusing this situation. That and making the last stage of Galakrond give 6/6s instead of 8/8s should be sufficient.
[Legend] Leprosy SMOrc Hunter
Glad you've had as much fun and success as I have!
Hearthstone Balance Changes Confirmed For Next Week
And you base this on... what, exactly?
[Legend] Leprosy SMOrc Hunter
Update: I've played quite a few games with this deck now, and can safely say it is a lot of fun, and ladder viable. I have yet to lose to Shaman with it. It's hilarious watching them have no way around all the face damage. I will be playing this deck at least until the nerfs.
Also, this deck has made me see the potential of Hot Air Balloon. If it's not removed fast, it stays around for a long time.
Eternal - Event: Ixtol's Challengers
New Eternal event starting Friday 12/20!
Standard Meta Report #15 - Fixing (Yet Another) Shaman Meta
For what it's worth, I'm not totally convinced that your comparisons are fair.
I think "Discover a Priest Minion" is inherently a lot weaker than the other two hero powers. In the case of Deathstalker Rexxar, you got to build unusually powerful cards by combining effects that would typically not be together in the interest of balance. If his hero power had simply been "Discover a Beast," he would not have been nearly as oppressive. In the case of Dr. Boom, Mad Genius, there really is no bad mech because every mech has rush. Add to that the fact that several mechs in standard have removal effects (Omega Devastator and Dyn-o-matic for example), and you get a hero power that makes controlling the board trivial. By comparison, Priest minions are often weak and rarely generate the kinds of tempo swings you'd see with Deathstalker Rexxar and Dr. Boom, Mad Genius.
Now, there is some math to suggest that discover could be dangerous. Today there are 41 Priest minions in standard, and if we assert that about 25% of them are generically good (e.g. Catrina Muerte, Murozond the Infinite), then you'd have a shot at picking one of these good minions about 58% of the time. Those are pretty good odds and could make for some major swing turns, but many of those are still at or under vanilla in terms of stats. Even the ones that might provide a lot more tempo above their costs probably can't impact the board immediately (e.g. Murozond the Infinite and Princess Talanji can create big boards, but don't automatically clear your opponent's stuff). So there are lots of cases where getting a high power minion still doesn't auto-win you the game.
All that said, while discover doesn't scare me all that much, I think I'd be satisfied with simply removing some minions from the random pool for Galakrond, so you wouldn't be stuck getting total garbage like Lightwell. Any buff is generally unlikely, but I do think a buff would be important to make this hero power viable - right now it's incredibly easy to get garbage minions like Lightwell or hyper situational minions like Sand Drudge that are hard to get value out of in a deck that isn't built to use them.
Should the deck size be increased to slow down general tempo?
I see your point but most controls are carrying a fair amount of draw and even just a slight rise to 34 wouldn't hurt them
Should the deck size be increased to slow down general tempo?
I personally don't think there should ever be room in the meta for the kind of extreme aggro deck that relies entirely on getting good draw with no skill and just smashing the face as. That's not fun to play with or play against.
But IMHO the solution is to moderate the aggro options rather than expand the deck size which would mean that control games would take way too long.
Sathrovarr OTK!
This is deck : awful, gruesome, hideous, outrageus, desperate, grim, lurid, scary :(
Yet FUN deck also awful.... :(
Should the deck size be increased to slow down general tempo?
I'm not gonna lie I've been very annoyed this expansion which is unusual for me and have actually thought about quitting for good. This is not one of "those" threads but I do feel that the tempo of this game is causing problems and whatever nerfs are made will just push something with better tempo to the top.
Now tempo is a key part of this game, I remember 1 mana Mana Wyrm and I'm not trying to push out aggro at all but I mean even some control and midrange have a strong aggro presence these days. The only thing I think that would slow down general tempo is to increase the deck size. Then maybe we might see some more interesting decks, Aggro may have to include more draw to keep their tempo but I really feel something has to be addressed. What are your thoughts?