A strategy i heard was to use the Explorers in the order that they give you. Reno is just great in general, so using him to blow through the first phase is reccomended as after that point it is pretty much easy game
If mage got another decent board freeze I reckon most OTK/combo mages would play at least one copy of it. It's a card type that isn't nearly as saturated as priest mass-removal.
I also don't think mass-freeze effects are quite analogous to board clears. It's quite possible that decks would run even more than 6 freeze effects, if they could, in order to lock minion-centric decks out of the game entirely with repeat mass-freezes against a full board.
I'm a bit torn on the issue. On the one hand I think mage's card do an excellent job at outlining the class identity and providing starting players with playable cards, at the same time I think a lot of these cards are so powerful that mage tends to receive rather underwhelming expansion cards year after year. Mage hardly ever gets good burn spells because Fireball and Frostbolt exist. Mage never gets any mass freeze effects because of Frost Nova, Blizzard and Cone of Cold. Mage sometimes gets decent AoE because frankly it doesn't really matter if the class has access to even more board clears, that role is already saturated by the evergreen set.
Yeah freeze effects are a whole different thing than board clears. If we look at the current solitaire mage in wild though, that deck doesn't even run Cone of Cold. It runs Blizzard, Frost Nova and Ray of Frost. Sure that deck can run even more freeze spells, but at that point it will be at the cost of card draw. If those decks decide to go all in on the freezes and thus become a lot slower in executing their OTK then I feel like they basically concede every other OTK matchup at that point. They will never be fast enough against decks that don't have a board. Which is why I, luckily, don't see a hardcore freeze becoming a thing anytime soon.
Playing only one Sul'thraze feels weird to me, since that together with the quest and Armored Goon is the core of the deck.
I had Hench-Clan Thug and also Dread Corsair in an earlier version of my quest deck, but while that deck did reasonably well, it got its wins before completing the quest, so it would be stronger if it could play a minion on turn 1 instead.
The quest reward isn't a huge tempo swing: while a 4/3 for 2 mana is better than what most cards offer you, it's not that much better at turn 6, which is the earliest you can hope to start using your new hero power. What the 4/3s are useful for is to keep reloading the board every turn, to run your opponent out of removal. But that is a plan that takes time to execute, so building the deck to complete the quest as early as possible doesn't pay off, in my experience.
I almost wrote a paragraph about tiebreakers as well but as you said the line has to be somewhere and I didn't have any other proposition on how to deal with that. It is always going to feel bad going out on tiebreakers regardless, moreso if your tiebreaker was only 1 point worse like Feno's compared to Seiko's.
Firebat brought this up a while back on Omni/Stone: tournaments have top-heavy prize money to attract attention, but as you said the skill difference between the top players is a lot smaller than the differences in prize money. The current system where prize money is used to select new GM players only increases this unfairness. Instead, they could use a points system to decide who gets into GM.
Something else that Firebat mentioned on this week's Omni/Stone is that the second tie breaker doesn't really make sense in the GM format. The first tie breaker is head-to-head results, so that is fair, but for a lot of players the head-to-head results were 1-1. The second tie breaker rewarded players who won vs higher ranked players. That is a useful tie breaker in Swiss tournaments, where different players face different opponents and some opponents will be tougher than others. But in the GM format, every player plays every other player in their division twice. So if someone won vs higher ranking players and still ended up at the same points total as someone else, it means they also lost to lower ranking players. Therefore the second tie breaker doesn't really measure performance.
On the other hand, the suggestion they had of deciding tie breakers by playing another match would work for two tied players, but in the case of a 4-player tie that would become a mini-tournament in itself. You can always make Hearthstone more fair by playing more matches, but you have to draw the line somewhere and that somewhere is always going to feel arbitrary.
Whenever I see a thread in Recent Threads (or Active Threads on the forum page) that I've been following and want to see what just got posted, it's annoying to get sent to page one and have to click through to the newest page. It's even worse for long threads since there's no newest post button, you just have to click through multiple times until you reach the newest post.
Is there a way to have the Recent/Active Threads lists link to the most recent post instead of the first post? I know there's the Last Post button in the forums themselves, is there a way to link to that instead?
Great article; I love these explorations into the game design and mechanics! I believe the last point is the strongest (followed by 2, then 1), as the medium allows for a lot of design choices that simply aren't plausible in paper games. Take a look at many of the dungeons that implement boss mechanics and the copy game mechanic... how would these even be possible? Also, as has already been mentioned, the RNG allows for players to have some success without meta decks or serious skill, encouraging newcomers to stick around and have fun (and spend money, of course).
"Players who have an active Arena run when this begins will have their current run ended and will receive an Arena Ticket as compensation." - from news about new event, under Dual-Class Arenas.
Ice Lance is better (faster animations = more casts) instead of Cinderstorm. Also iv found the deck to misfire sometimes, if you dont draw enough draw cards, since you are cycling only 5 cards per turn with bad ordering, but that happens rarely.
Side Note: What ever happened to Freeze Shaman?!?!?! Print a few cards for the archetype and then never mention it again? Come on, Blizzard!!!
Was a meme, blizzard knew it was a meme, people hated shaman a lot when koft was in the planning phase so they gave the class the worst cards ever printed.
Actually, Deathseer Thrall was a really nice card that expansion! As soon as I opened that guy I built an Evolution Shaman deck and played that a LOT!!! Got over 100 of my first 500 Shaman wins with that deck alone in the first month or so. Then it suddenly fell off on win rate, around the time that Keleseth decks rose to prominence.
But meme or not, I would have loved to see more freeze support for Shaman. #MakeMoorabiGreatForOnce
I just made a highlander/evolve homebrew shaman a couple of days ago and have had a pretty good winrate in wild casual. deathseer thrall is a super powerful with brann, and spirit of the frog is a tremendous help.
Evolve shaman is tons of fun, and I like to go back to it every few months to re-descover the archetype and try it out with new cards.
Black Temple
My favourite, though I also still miss it in my collection.
King Phaoris Big Warrior
This deck looks really fun! Boy, am I glad that I have every legendary for this, because this is one expensive deck.
Theorycrafting Doom in the Tomb - 5 Decks to Try Day 1
Ah yes. Because nothing screams tempo like "do nothing on turn one for a reward that comes into play far too late".
Analysis on the 23 wild cards added
OP, can you please edit your post and add some punctuation? I literally got a headache after reading about a few of the cards.
Wich is your Favourite Adventure?
Rumble Run for sure
How to beat the last Boss in ToT on heroic?
A strategy i heard was to use the Explorers in the order that they give you. Reno is just great in general, so using him to blow through the first phase is reccomended as after that point it is pretty much easy game
I'm bored. It's summer. Anyone has any ideas for games for me to play?
I like the suspense game or something that has a trill? Haha
Frost Nova should be HoF'd
Yeah freeze effects are a whole different thing than board clears. If we look at the current solitaire mage in wild though, that deck doesn't even run Cone of Cold. It runs Blizzard, Frost Nova and Ray of Frost. Sure that deck can run even more freeze spells, but at that point it will be at the cost of card draw. If those decks decide to go all in on the freezes and thus become a lot slower in executing their OTK then I feel like they basically concede every other OTK matchup at that point. They will never be fast enough against decks that don't have a board. Which is why I, luckily, don't see a hardcore freeze becoming a thing anytime soon.
Theorycrafting Doom in the Tomb - 5 Decks to Try Day 1
And Sylvanas is going to show up from druids' Faoris. Great, eh?
Quest Warrior
Playing only one Sul'thraze feels weird to me, since that together with the quest and Armored Goon is the core of the deck.
I had Hench-Clan Thug and also Dread Corsair in an earlier version of my quest deck, but while that deck did reasonably well, it got its wins before completing the quest, so it would be stronger if it could play a minion on turn 1 instead.
The quest reward isn't a huge tempo swing: while a 4/3 for 2 mana is better than what most cards offer you, it's not that much better at turn 6, which is the earliest you can hope to start using your new hero power. What the 4/3s are useful for is to keep reloading the board every turn, to run your opponent out of removal. But that is a plan that takes time to execute, so building the deck to complete the quest as early as possible doesn't pay off, in my experience.
Hearthstone Grandmasters - The Lead-up to Relegations, Problems with the System
I almost wrote a paragraph about tiebreakers as well but as you said the line has to be somewhere and I didn't have any other proposition on how to deal with that. It is always going to feel bad going out on tiebreakers regardless, moreso if your tiebreaker was only 1 point worse like Feno's compared to Seiko's.
Hearthstone Grandmasters - The Lead-up to Relegations, Problems with the System
Firebat brought this up a while back on Omni/Stone: tournaments have top-heavy prize money to attract attention, but as you said the skill difference between the top players is a lot smaller than the differences in prize money. The current system where prize money is used to select new GM players only increases this unfairness. Instead, they could use a points system to decide who gets into GM.
Something else that Firebat mentioned on this week's Omni/Stone is that the second tie breaker doesn't really make sense in the GM format. The first tie breaker is head-to-head results, so that is fair, but for a lot of players the head-to-head results were 1-1. The second tie breaker rewarded players who won vs higher ranked players. That is a useful tie breaker in Swiss tournaments, where different players face different opponents and some opponents will be tougher than others. But in the GM format, every player plays every other player in their division twice. So if someone won vs higher ranking players and still ended up at the same points total as someone else, it means they also lost to lower ranking players. Therefore the second tie breaker doesn't really measure performance.
On the other hand, the suggestion they had of deciding tie breakers by playing another match would work for two tied players, but in the case of a 4-player tie that would become a mini-tournament in itself. You can always make Hearthstone more fair by playing more matches, but you have to draw the line somewhere and that somewhere is always going to feel arbitrary.
Recent Threads should take you to the newest post
Whenever I see a thread in Recent Threads (or Active Threads on the forum page) that I've been following and want to see what just got posted, it's annoying to get sent to page one and have to click through to the newest page. It's even worse for long threads since there's no newest post button, you just have to click through multiple times until you reach the newest post.
Is there a way to have the Recent/Active Threads lists link to the most recent post instead of the first post? I know there's the Last Post button in the forums themselves, is there a way to link to that instead?
Hearthstone Grandmasters - The Lead-up to Relegations, Problems with the System
Thanks for the updates. While on-and-off watching last weekend, I caught some of it, but getting the full summary helps a lot.
Here's some art, make a card! [Legacy Game]
Can be used as tech against enemies and against your own minions either to trigger Deathrattles or just to get a bigger minion on the board.
Next up, a legendary Dragon based on King Ghidorah.
How to beat the last Boss in ToT on heroic?
Step 1: Pick Reno Jackson as a starter
Step 2: Draw both Lei Flamepaw and The Gatling Wand
Step 3: Survive and cast as many spells as you can
Step 4: Lei Flamepaw + The Gatling Wand when you can OTK him [200+ damage or whatever it takes]
Worked for me.
Hearthstone Hypothesis - Why is Randomosity So Prominent in Hearthstone?
Great article; I love these explorations into the game design and mechanics! I believe the last point is the strongest (followed by 2, then 1), as the medium allows for a lot of design choices that simply aren't plausible in paper games. Take a look at many of the dungeons that implement boss mechanics and the copy game mechanic... how would these even be possible? Also, as has already been mentioned, the RNG allows for players to have some success without meta decks or serious skill, encouraging newcomers to stick around and have fun (and spend money, of course).
Quest Warrior
Went 9-6 with the update with this deck .... have some potential ... need tweeking i think :)
I did not add the bezerker and kept the Brawl and Warpath for aggro
King Phaoris Big Warrior
hahah it really is, and people thought Quest Druid had big swing turns... ;). Thank you, I'm glad you like it!
King Phaoris Big Warrior
Thank you! I hope you have a lot of fun with it! :)
Will incomplete arenas be rewarded with a ticket when the next tavern arrives?
"Players who have an active Arena run when this begins will have their current run ended and will receive an Arena Ticket as compensation." - from news about new event, under Dual-Class Arenas.
Will incomplete arenas be rewarded with a ticket when the next tavern arrives?
Basically - yes.
Really enjoying the Six-Shooter brawl
Got the "Play 6 Pirates" quest and the "Win 3 Tavern Brawls" quest, so I thought - Pirate Rogue? Why not.
Deck ID Not Found
Winrate is 10-1 so far. Pleasantly surprised.
Infinite 6-Shooter Combo
Ice Lance is better (faster animations = more casts) instead of Cinderstorm. Also iv found the deck to misfire sometimes, if you dont draw enough draw cards, since you are cycling only 5 cards per turn with bad ordering, but that happens rarely.
Frost Nova should be HoF'd
I just made a highlander/evolve homebrew shaman a couple of days ago and have had a pretty good winrate in wild casual. deathseer thrall is a super powerful with brann, and spirit of the frog is a tremendous help.
Evolve shaman is tons of fun, and I like to go back to it every few months to re-descover the archetype and try it out with new cards.