So let's take a closer look to this card. To begin with, it's a neutral minion, which means it's playable for all 9 classes: a pretty solid inclusion in most decks, limited just by your lack of vision in this card's monstrous potential; moreover, it's not a Legendary: this is actually HUMONGOUS, since you won't have to spend 1600 for a valid card and you can even include two copies of it in your deck. Suck on that Tirion Fordring!
Given this humble introduction, let's talk about what matters the most in the game: stats. Are you familiar with the vanilla test? A minion is considered good if the sum of its statistics is bigger that the double of its cost +1. Watch this: 1+1=2, which is bigger than (0x2)+1=1. Insane! Moreover, it's totally immune to silence: yeah, that's right, your opponent is forced to trade away this glorious creature from the board instead of just silencing it. Pretty big deal. Go eat a shoe Spellbreaker!
Aren't you convinced yet? Ok fool, get ready: by playing Wisp with Rogue, you'll give +2/+2 to your Edwin VanCleef FOR FREE, while putting stats in play; moreover, it completely shuts down pesky secrets like Potion of Polymorph, Repentance If this is not value, then I don't know what you're talking about.
Furthermore (almost) always wins Brawls and can't even be targeted by bullshit tech cards like Hungry Crab or [Hearthstone Card (Golakka Crab) Not Found]. Patches the Pirate? Snowflipper Penguin??Get the fuck out of here.
Go hurry and craft two golden copies of this bad boy before Blizzard decides to ban it from the game.
I'm still opening packs and I'm 18 away from the pity timer. I will wait, until the special tavern brawl comes and we get our packs, so that I can finally obtain one more legendary before I start saving for the next expansion. If I don't get a desired card, I will use the dust to craft one of these:
There are many other legendaries, which I want to possess, but I'm not that excited to spend the acquired 1600 dust on them. I prefer to have fun with other cards.
I applaud the people who came up with the algorithms for Zephrys the Great, amazing how this card works. GJ on the nefs too, i like em, yet control warrior still seems too overpowered atm imo.
Ok I talked a bit about other decks. Now that I'm home I took a screenshot of my stats for the zoo (luckily can do it on website because I have Premium):
Yeah tekahn is not exactly game winning, but he is decent, I actually included him just because I wanted to include every card that says "Lackey" but he is ok in Zoo, so no regrets.
Worst card as i said before is Sea Giant, but he is not all that bad... As you can see it doesn't get stuck in hand though I usually can play him as soon as i draw him. Reason he is not very high winrate is because it often he just baits hard removal and that is about it. That one time I kept him in Mulligan was against the class I have it for in the first place, he is really good against highlander mage in mid game because they usually don't run Polymorph and Sea Giant is too fat for all the AOE.
It sounds like you are going for as big a collection as possible including wild cards. It really makes little sense to craft any classic legendaries like Brightwing because you will open them eventually through spectator quests and tavern brawl. Use your dust on those wild cards if you don't plan on buying those packs.
Wow you guys are too serious. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Yes, there have been times I've rooted for the other person. If I wanted to watch the same deck over and over again I'd watch a try hard streamer climbing legend/ladder.
Thats true. But the others are rare. It all depends on how much dust you have. If you have 12k dust like me keeping the rares isnt that much of a risk if you think they will still be used.
i'll be honest, all of those legendaries you have listed as your third option are pretty bad. you probably know that and just want to craft them for fun. I think either yogg saron, or old murkeye. yogg is a build around card and you will be able to play a bunch of decks you could never play otherwise, old murkeye is just a good card in any murloc deck. the other ones mostly seem like just random niche cards that you could easily play without.
Ahm... Aluneth is one of the best cards in Secret Mage (a tier 1 deck):
Dunno about standard, but in wild Armagedillo gained a lot of popularity due to the amazing support the format can offer. Warriors have built a more mid-rangy quest deck:
My opponent was using a renounce warlock deck. So things got weird from the start.
Especially when both sides busted out Archbishop Benedictus. Multiple times. Don't ask how. I'm amazed the game didn't end in a draw for going on too long.
I had a golden Luna so I dusted it, crafted the regular version and an 1600 dust richer. I'm going to save it until I come across a card in wild that I want.
Awesome write-up! Learned a lot and it was cool seeing the cards brought to life. Thanks for sharing. As an aside, your favorite fantasy universes are also my favorites as well.
Inspired by ZardozSpeakZ's Screams of the Old Gods, I decided to do a buff event for Rastakhan's Rumble. Why this expansion particularly? For a last expansion of the year, it seemed to have very low impact. Sure, some cards like Da Undatakah or Zul'jin were really powerul (and still are), but mainly it was just a lot of support for existing archtypes or support for Gonk Druid, Discardlock and Healadin. But I'm not gonna go so much in detail because that's not really the point and also because I'll give a brief explanation of my choice on each card.
But first:
A new Loa, Rezan the King!
And another use of the Start of Game ability. Similair to Sir Finley Mrrgglton, it gives you a new starting Hero Power, however you cannot choose which one. But if you don't like what you get, you can return your original hero Power by playing Rezan.
And a Spirit to accompany the Loa, Spirit of the King!
The King gladly helps the meek. Useful in any deck that wants its low Cost cards or some drawingconsistency .
And yes, all players get Rezan and two Spirits of the King for FREE!
Onto the buffs:
Fair buffs
Interesting buffs
Druid
It seems unfair that one option is so obviously worse than the other one. It's not a big buff, but I think the card would start to see some play, if anything because of versatility.
Big Beast Druid seemed promising, but Undatakah was just better. The card has been lost ever since, but with this buff someone might stir up a viable Big Beast Druid.
Hunter
Halazzi is pretty useless now, even in casual decks. Reducing the Cost by 1 means you can play it turn 5 with a Lynx, but it would probably still see no serious ranked play.
There's some experimentation with this in Highlander Hunter, but that's it. With 3 Attack, it becomes much better when played without a Weapon and great when played when you have one equiped.
Mage
Making Elemental support 4 months before Un'goro and Frost Lich Jaina leave Standard. At least now it's more versatile andcomparable to Vendetta.
Not only is Dragon Priest arguably better than Elemental Mage, they also make Elemental Duskbreaker cost 6. It could see play if Elementals become Mage's class identity (like Beasts in Hunter).
Paladin
Spirit of the Tiger has potential, but it's too slow and Paladin doesn't have many good high-Cost spells. Reducing the Cost by 1 helps getting more value from it with midrange spells like Blessing of Kings.
Since the current Bloodclaw has too big of a downside, even in occasional Healadins, making it 3/2 would make it much better for early control as well as aggression.
Priest
Was designed mainly as CC nerf, but it's still a Nomi/Spell Priest buff. Also, Evolve Shaman can now get this from evolving 10-Cost minions. Take that as you want.
Surrender to Madness 2.0! Get 2 dead Keleseths, but pay 1 now and the other throughout the game! Probably still not nearly viable, but definitely much cooler.
Rogue
Although you might be lucky enough to get Twig or Dragon Soul in Wild, that chance is shrinking with every new weapon, not to mention how ineffective this is in Standard.
Theoretically, 5-Cost Gral is good as long as it eats a 3/4 or 4/3 or higher stated minion. So a 4-Cost Gral needs to eat a 2/3 or 3/2 or higher to be good. Again, just theoretically.
Shaman
Still bad, but hey, this wouldn't be realistic if there wasn't at least one badly thought-out change, now would it? *laughs in Flark's Boom-Zooka*
Easily one of the least played and known cards of the set. By reducing the requirement, the card becomes a lot more accessible and easier to play at any point of the game.
Warlock
A card occasionally used by Zoolock. Since Warlock sucks right now, having a better answer to big minions is fine. Best part is that it can now cost 0.
Definitely the biggest buff of all, and Warlock could really use it right now. Unlike Luna's Pocket Galaxy, this gives you no value, but it can easily mess up your opponent's deck.
Warrior
Rush Warrior isn't a great deck, and Spirit of the Rhino even there isn't worth a slot. With 0 Mana, it is much simpler to play Rush minions in the same turn, but it's still only good as a part of a bad deck.
The only Dragon Warrior card that wasn't played. With almost vanilla stats it can give you better control to play those copies. And with DoD coming up, this might just become relevant.
I don't care about net-decking. It's going to happen and it's necessity. I work in media; keep a large number of people talking about a game and sharing ideas about it, you keep it alive and generating revenue, as well as hopefully keeping the guys in charge of it in touch with what is going on with their product. The game needs forums like this and stats sites to keep fanbase interest; fans exchange ideas, for better or for worse, decks get copied by the masses, with varying levels of individuals tweaking them, for better or for worse. Necessary good and evil.
Best game of the SoU era I've had? Me using this thief priest deck by someone here on the site vs. a Renounce Warlock in wild. We don't get good, unpredictable clown fiestas anymore. That was fun. Different. Engaging. And this was at Rank 9, not 20. More power to Renounce Warlock guy busting that out.
/tip for Quest Wall-style priests: consider Arcane Dynamo, especially if King Phaoris is in the deck. Adds more spice and an extra mass rez was what broke Control Warrior opponents.
Wisp
So let's take a closer look to this card. To begin with, it's a neutral minion, which means it's playable for all 9 classes: a pretty solid inclusion in most decks, limited just by your lack of vision in this card's monstrous potential; moreover, it's not a Legendary: this is actually HUMONGOUS, since you won't have to spend 1600 for a valid card and you can even include two copies of it in your deck. Suck on that Tirion Fordring!
Given this humble introduction, let's talk about what matters the most in the game: stats. Are you familiar with the vanilla test? A minion is considered good if the sum of its statistics is bigger that the double of its cost +1. Watch this: 1+1=2, which is bigger than (0x2)+1=1. Insane! Moreover, it's totally immune to silence: yeah, that's right, your opponent is forced to trade away this glorious creature from the board instead of just silencing it. Pretty big deal. Go eat a shoe Spellbreaker!
Aren't you convinced yet? Ok fool, get ready: by playing Wisp with Rogue, you'll give +2/+2 to your Edwin VanCleef FOR FREE, while putting stats in play; moreover, it completely shuts down pesky secrets like Potion of Polymorph, Repentance If this is not value, then I don't know what you're talking about.
Furthermore (almost) always wins Brawls and can't even be targeted by bullshit tech cards like Hungry Crab or [Hearthstone Card (Golakka Crab) Not Found]. Patches the Pirate? Snowflipper Penguin??Get the fuck out of here.
Go hurry and craft two golden copies of this bad boy before Blizzard decides to ban it from the game.
What are you going to craft with your nerf dust?
I'm still opening packs and I'm 18 away from the pity timer. I will wait, until the special tavern brawl comes and we get our packs, so that I can finally obtain one more legendary before I start saving for the next expansion. If I don't get a desired card, I will use the dust to craft one of these:
There are many other legendaries, which I want to possess, but I'm not that excited to spend the acquired 1600 dust on them. I prefer to have fun with other cards.
August Nerfs Now Live! Zephrys Improvements and Bug Fixes
I applaud the people who came up with the algorithms for Zephrys the Great, amazing how this card works. GJ on the nefs too, i like em, yet control warrior still seems too overpowered atm imo.
What are the best tech choices for zoo actually are?
Ok I talked a bit about other decks. Now that I'm home I took a screenshot of my stats for the zoo (luckily can do it on website because I have Premium):
Yeah tekahn is not exactly game winning, but he is decent, I actually included him just because I wanted to include every card that says "Lackey" but he is ok in Zoo, so no regrets.
Worst card as i said before is Sea Giant, but he is not all that bad... As you can see it doesn't get stuck in hand though I usually can play him as soon as i draw him. Reason he is not very high winrate is because it often he just baits hard removal and that is about it. That one time I kept him in Mulligan was against the class I have it for in the first place, he is really good against highlander mage in mid game because they usually don't run Polymorph and Sea Giant is too fat for all the AOE.
What are you going to craft with your nerf dust?
It sounds like you are going for as big a collection as possible including wild cards. It really makes little sense to craft any classic legendaries like Brightwing because you will open them eventually through spectator quests and tavern brawl. Use your dust on those wild cards if you don't plan on buying those packs.
What are you going to craft with your nerf dust?
I just got 1100 dust from the nerfs and there are actually a lot of cards I'd like to have: Reno the Relicologist, Leeroy Jenkins (yep, still don't have it), Siamat, Dinotamer Brann, Kalecgos, Frost Lich Jaina, Kazakus, N'Zoth, the Corruptor and Reno Jackson are some good examples given that I'm trying to get into Wild mode too.
If it will be any good, I'll probably insist on Highlander Hunter, since I have most of the cards and I like the singleton idea, but I don't know.
Big ambitions, little dust reserves lol
Ever root against friend when spectating for quest?
Wow you guys are too serious. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Yes, there have been times I've rooted for the other person. If I wanted to watch the same deck over and over again I'd watch a try hard streamer climbing legend/ladder.
What are you going to craft with your nerf dust?
Psychopomps
August Nerfs Now Live! Zephrys Improvements and Bug Fixes
Fair point. I’ll probably experiment with them a bit first though
August Nerfs Now Live! Zephrys Improvements and Bug Fixes
Thats true. But the others are rare. It all depends on how much dust you have. If you have 12k dust like me keeping the rares isnt that much of a risk if you think they will still be used.
What are you going to craft with your nerf dust?
Ahm... Aluneth is one of the best cards in Secret Mage (a tier 1 deck):
https://hsreplay.net/decks/3y9GNQS5hEy64mFm1uBBuf/#gameType=RANKED_WILD
Dunno about standard, but in wild Armagedillo gained a lot of popularity due to the amazing support the format can offer. Warriors have built a more mid-rangy quest deck:
https://hsreplay.net/decks/Cl6DP4EunHMZgFcqfdM2yg/#gameType=RANKED_WILD
August Nerfs Now Live! Zephrys Improvements and Bug Fixes
It is always best to DE everything right away for the full refund because you can always craft them again later with no net loss.
August Nerfs Now Live! Zephrys Improvements and Bug Fixes
A bit iffy on dusting Conjurer’s and Dr Boom, they will probably still be played
The Supreme Pillage of Uldum
My opponent was using a renounce warlock deck. So things got weird from the start.
Especially when both sides busted out Archbishop Benedictus. Multiple times. Don't ask how. I'm amazed the game didn't end in a draw for going on too long.
What are you going to craft with your nerf dust?
I had a golden Luna so I dusted it, crafted the regular version and an 1600 dust richer. I'm going to save it until I come across a card in wild that I want.
Custom Class - Time Traveler (Updated February 17th - Return to Naxxramas added!)
Since Spoilers aren't added yet, I've compiled all the Time Traveler content for Dungeon Run, Rumble Run, and Dalaran Heist into Docs sheets.
Dungeon Run Information
Rumble Run Information
Dalaran Heist Information
This will be added to the main post in a second. EDIT: Done now.
What are you going to craft with your nerf dust?
Which brings us back to Brightwing, because you can use her in any class for extra Millhouses.
The Supreme Pillage of Uldum
Well, I'm glad you liked it.
Renounce Warlock you say? I haven't seen this deck for a long time. I wish I stumbled upon more clown fiesta decks like you.
What are you going to craft with your nerf dust?
But with Face Collector you can get multiple [Hearthstone Card (Millhouse) Not Found]s to win even MORE games!
Ever root against friend when spectating for quest?
Pretty much.
The Old Gods, Masters of Madness - Traversing Azeroth
Awesome write-up! Learned a lot and it was cool seeing the cards brought to life. Thanks for sharing. As an aside, your favorite fantasy universes are also my favorites as well.
What are you going to craft with your nerf dust?
You need to have the regular copy too tho, so you can play one regular and one golden copy in your highlander decks!
Glory of the Zandalari - Custom Event
Inspired by ZardozSpeakZ's Screams of the Old Gods, I decided to do a buff event for Rastakhan's Rumble. Why this expansion particularly? For a last expansion of the year, it seemed to have very low impact. Sure, some cards like Da Undatakah or Zul'jin were really powerul (and still are), but mainly it was just a lot of support for existing archtypes or support for Gonk Druid, Discardlock and Healadin. But I'm not gonna go so much in detail because that's not really the point and also because I'll give a brief explanation of my choice on each card.
But first:
A new Loa, Rezan the King!
And another use of the Start of Game ability. Similair to
Sir Finley Mrrgglton, it gives you a new starting Hero Power, however you cannot choose which one. But if you don't like what you get, you can return your original hero Power by playing Rezan.
And a Spirit to accompany the Loa, Spirit of the King!
The King gladly helps the meek. Useful in any deck that wants its low Cost cards or some drawing consistency .
And yes, all players get Rezan and two Spirits of the King for FREE!
Onto the buffs:
It seems unfair that one option is so obviously worse than the other one. It's not a big buff, but I think the card would start to see some play, if anything because of versatility.
Big Beast Druid seemed promising, but Undatakah was just better. The card has been lost ever since, but with this buff someone might stir up a viable Big Beast Druid.
Halazzi is pretty useless now, even in casual decks. Reducing the Cost by 1 means you can play it turn 5 with a Lynx, but it would probably still see no serious ranked play.
There's some experimentation with this in Highlander Hunter, but that's it. With 3 Attack, it becomes much better when played without a Weapon and great when played when you have one equiped.
Making Elemental support 4 months before Un'goro and Frost Lich Jaina leave Standard. At least now it's more versatile and comparable to Vendetta.
Not only is Dragon Priest arguably better than Elemental Mage, they also make Elemental Duskbreaker cost 6. It could see play if Elementals become Mage's class identity (like Beasts in Hunter).
Spirit of the Tiger has potential, but it's too slow and Paladin doesn't have many good high-Cost spells. Reducing the Cost by 1 helps getting more value from it with midrange spells like Blessing of Kings.
Since the current Bloodclaw has too big of a downside, even in occasional Healadins, making it 3/2 would make it much better for early control as well as aggression.
Was designed mainly as CC nerf, but it's still a Nomi/Spell Priest buff. Also, Evolve Shaman can now get this from evolving 10-Cost minions. Take that as you want.
Surrender to Madness 2.0! Get 2 dead Keleseths, but pay 1 now and the other throughout the game! Probably still not nearly viable, but definitely much cooler.
Although you might be lucky enough to get Twig or Dragon Soul in Wild, that chance is shrinking with every new weapon, not to mention how ineffective this is in Standard.
Theoretically, 5-Cost Gral is good as long as it eats a 3/4 or 4/3 or higher stated minion. So a 4-Cost Gral needs to eat a 2/3 or 3/2 or higher to be good.
Again, just theoretically.
Still bad, but hey, this wouldn't be realistic if there wasn't at least one badly thought-out change, now would it?
*laughs in Flark's Boom-Zooka*
Easily one of the least played and known cards of the set. By reducing the requirement, the card becomes a lot more accessible and easier to play at any point of the game.
A card occasionally used by Zoolock. Since Warlock sucks right now, having a better answer to big minions is fine. Best part is that it can now cost 0.
Definitely the biggest buff of all, and Warlock could really use it right now. Unlike Luna's Pocket Galaxy, this gives you no value, but it can easily mess up your opponent's deck.
Rush Warrior isn't a great deck, and Spirit of the Rhino even there isn't worth a slot. With 0 Mana, it is much simpler to play Rush minions in the same turn, but it's still only good as a part of a bad deck.
The only Dragon Warrior card that wasn't played. With almost vanilla stats it can give you better control to play those copies. And with DoD coming up, this might just become relevant.
Thoughts are welcome!
Ever root against friend when spectating for quest?
I don't care about net-decking. It's going to happen and it's necessity. I work in media; keep a large number of people talking about a game and sharing ideas about it, you keep it alive and generating revenue, as well as hopefully keeping the guys in charge of it in touch with what is going on with their product. The game needs forums like this and stats sites to keep fanbase interest; fans exchange ideas, for better or for worse, decks get copied by the masses, with varying levels of individuals tweaking them, for better or for worse. Necessary good and evil.
Best game of the SoU era I've had? Me using this thief priest deck by someone here on the site vs. a Renounce Warlock in wild. We don't get good, unpredictable clown fiestas anymore. That was fun. Different. Engaging. And this was at Rank 9, not 20. More power to Renounce Warlock guy busting that out.
/tip for Quest Wall-style priests: consider Arcane Dynamo, especially if King Phaoris is in the deck. Adds more spice and an extra mass rez was what broke Control Warrior opponents.
What are you going to craft with your nerf dust?
I always assumed everyone crafted their golden Millhouse right away.