I didn't document my findings as detailed as you 😜 but here's my summary:
I think I got lucky with some placements on the first turn, coz I had 3 suspects that had "Flower in Hair" as their first clue, but only 1 location had "small flower petals". I investigated each location first as suggested in the article and I swapped around a few suspects that had the same clue. My first accusation was correct as well. Turn 2 came round and I had only 4 fireworks so I reverted the suspects to their same positions as turn 1 thinking they were correct so I didn't bother accusing them at all.
I basically tried to accuse every suspect from left to right, except for the ones where I knew they were correct due to the fireworks intel. Luckily I only needed to investigate 1 suspect to get 3 clues (was Sesselie). Won on turn 7.
Honestly think I got lucky first time round, coz played a 2nd match and only got 2 fireworks on the first turn.
Wow, after what I saw posted I think Whizbang should be legal in classic, even if he is from a future expansion. That would give players an affordable way to try classic and then invest in it is they like what they get.
Obviously is too late to implement now in what classic is today without a new meta, as people will not be crazy about entering a year and a half "dead" gamemode. But after the changes, I see it as a nice possibility for population and future company earnings, as Whizbang decks were never perfect.
Edit: Also I have a strong feeling that Whizbang should be given to every player in the game, but I do not think that is going to happen.
I actually love the tavern brawl idea! If I remember correctly, the entire classic mode came out of the tavern brawl where you could play famous world championship matchups. If it shifted around to various metas every week, it would eventually land on whatever meta was your favourite. And pretty much never get stale.
new update, 14 new cards, dont have much to mention but here is new update! includes a change to Brass Walker, going from a 6/6 to a 4/4 with Taunt and Divine Shield
Next I'll focus on the class legendaries, which have been surprisingly lacking in numbers.
Awesome! The empower keyword looks really cool! Coming up with thematic and unique keywords is tough. I am currently also making a custom death knight class and it is really fun to compare different takes on the same characters and abilities!
1. Swain got buffed he is now a top meta deck, really no surprise all the tools were they just needed to buff the big man himself and his boat
2. A fiora deck is feeding on this matchup ^ in combination with pantheon and eula to deny interaction and eat the little things while opening up for lethal
3. Tf Nami and Akshan Lee Sin are still doing their thing to represent pink region.
Thats it that's the meta that's all folks.
Doo doo doo de doo
But in all seriousness outside of woooosh being a 1 mana infinite card engine for pink region, swains boat being too damn cheap at 7, and pantheon fiora existing as a counter to A fast speed interaction and B board flooding the games actually in a great place.
Recently I was going like 6 and 0 with vlad scythe boy because it really is that even and balanced.
2nd October update: Collisto's Jade Mill Druid: Big Green Men in 2022!
Milling your opponent and summoning Big Green Men. Tremendous! Plays were less than efficient, but I was able to win. As long as you don't mill the Jade Idols, I guess things are fine!
Will they release in PoC at least? Ive been waiting the return of Irelia to it since the 2.0, well i highly doubt she will be their Ionia choice any time since Ahri is way more popular, oh well pain.
Serious question: why is having to switch from standard to historic a problem?
Is changing the game mode that big of a deal? I mean WotC skrewed up in arena's case a lot by injecting new cards to historic that never were in standard and rebalancing cards that then became op/useless in historic. But in LoR's case I don't think Riot will do something like this.
The concern that old archetypes will get neglected by riot once they rotate out is a concern that I would agree on but then: more focus on new cards and new archetypes? That's not too bad eighter.
In the end the game is supposed to be open in deckbuilding and diverse and removing cards from an available cardpool can actually increase diversity which is why I think rotation is good as long as it is optional
I actually love it for the nostalgia, but of course I have to admit the mode is extremely unpopular. It doesn't hold people's interest, especially since it has literally not had a patch since it was released a year and a half ago. One thing I'm using it for is as a refuge when you aren't crazy about what's going on in the standard and/or wild meta, so that's still there.
I wouldn't like to see them give up on it completely, though as you say that's a distinct possibility. It's hard to imagine they are profiting off of classic packs.
As far as people dusting all their wild cards, I know that's a thing, and I wonder how widespread it is? I think the Hearthstone Mathematics youtube channel had a poll about this, but I couldn't find it when I went looking.
But yeah, there wouldn't be any point in crafting cards for a mode like this, especially if it was clearly transient, e.g. next one could be the "Blackrock Mountain" event so you wouldn't be able to use that Frost Lich Jaina if you just crafted that for the Frozen Throne event.
I'd love it. But much like classic itself, there doesn't seem to be a lot of players that really cling on to the nostalgia, nor do they seem to care enough about playing something in the past, particularly since hearthstone back then is significantly slower and less powerful compared to what we can do now.
And then there's one last, and I think very significant, matter. Most players, in my opinion, tend to dust their wild cards to afford playing in standard, and newer players obviously wouldn't have any of these cards to begin with. To ask anyone to craft a legendary for a game mode with 5 or more minutes queue time seems like a hard sell.
Very likely team5 would just forget this mode ever existed, since there's little demand and no obvious way to milk it. But should they opt for it, I feel the most sensible thing to do is to scrap the MMR matchmaking for such a mode, and make wild cards cheaper to afford. A pipe dream worth dreaming about, however remote.
I've been playing a bit of Classic lately, and with all the rumours flying around about the potential upcoming Death Knight class being added to the game, I thought I'd share a theory.
Back in one of his AMAs, Iksar was throwing a few theories around about what might become of classic, and he said this:
One that replaces classic. Rotates, but not super often. Think Classic –> MSOG, then 6 months or a year later it rotates to something else.
(Source)
He only mentioned Gadgetzan as an example. What if the next expansion is Northrend-themed, and Classic mode rotates to what was then Wild (or Standard) mode when Knights of the Frozen Throne came out? Or, perhaps more likely, the Spreading Plague/Fiery War Axe nerf patch.
I would be pretty geeked about that as that was the time when I first started playing competitively, trying to rank up and collect cards.
Yeah I used to play a lot of arena in diamond between the beta with amohnket and ixilan, well past war of the spark.
Speaking of arena as a perfect example I actually stopped playing and moved to lor exactly because rotation exists and I could no longer play my favorite decks and archetypes outside of historic.
I think a lot of people did including well known streamers.
Like yes it will be a very fresh time if they delete tf, or lee sin.
Because as we've seen players typically flock to what's good excluding me of course who is happy to make a lot of off meta archetypes work.
It's that mostly even balance curve - like meta being defined as 50% average champ, and 56% top tier is actually a very slim margin
So for the devs to throw that all away and only focus on that top 1% competitive crowd I think is a bit of a waste.
Not sure how much you play rotating formats in other cardgames but from what I know being a mtg standard player for multiple years now:
Rotation is the most refreshing time in year and most players are looking forward to the rotation round about half way in a year.
Old archetypes will come back over and over into the meta as new cards get released and even if we overall don't have as toxic archetypes in LoR than we had in MTG standard the last years (and I am talking decks being tier 1 for years that compare to tk soraka) it's good to know that something like bard isn't an archetype to stay and that there will be the day you don't need to deal with his archetype anymore.
The way rotations work in MTG is that they refresh the field, remove old archetypes, remove answers and enable archetypes that would never take off because they were hosed too much by certain answers/decks. On one hand this can cause for decks having no effective counter and can cause huge balance issues. On the other hand... it's just such a new experience and it enables cards that otherwise would never see play over their region's staples to be played in tier decks and I enjoy nothing more than a significant change in the way decks works.
Wow, that is pretty cool. But it must have also been weird to then figure out which ones were it, fearing you would move the correct one, eh? How did you proceed?
Official news here, LOR is becoming like other CCG's now.
So lets list pros and cons and try to be civil.
Pros:
Balancing old archetypes and regions namely Bilgewater has been like a two year commitment on the part of the devs, and it's something they have to spend constant time and resources on.
Cards like TF while interesting and unique as far as champions are concerned are constantly ending up in some of the best decks in the game (tf swain, tf nami, tf fizz)
It's possible with rotation that newer champs will be seeing more play
Broadens the design space so the devs don't have to balance around legacy interactions
Less time spent updating old champs to be viable again with re-designs
Cons:
The main thing that makes LOR unique is the evergreen state of the meta and how every champ and every card remains playable and somewhat viable in the competitive space in terms of a deck building consideration even if not in terms of the power curve.
Updating old archetypes, followers, and champs is what makes patches so interesting in LOR
Your favorite deck/playstyle potentially getting rotated out of ladder, unless there is a separate equally competitive ladder for the evergreen mode
Personally I weigh in on the con side as the entitled gamer I am saying devs just keep doing amazing comprehensive balance patches forever - just do it.
But again easier said then done, especially as the card pool continually expands over the years and there's more and more to balance.
I think you can view juries like democracies. Few voters know much about running a country, yet we still let them decide who should do it. That doesn't guarantee the population ends up liking the government, or even that the government does a better job than a monarch who's been trained for it all their life would, but most of the world has agreed it's still the best approach overall.
For what it's worth, jurors don't actually need to know anything beyond what illegal activity the defendant has been accused of. All they are being asked to decide is whether the defendant did it or not, and the judge decides how to apply the law from there.
Solving the "???" Mysteries of the Deviate Delight Card Back Achievement in Hearthstone - Solve the Castle Nathria Mystery
I didn't document my findings as detailed as you 😜 but here's my summary:
I think I got lucky with some placements on the first turn, coz I had 3 suspects that had "Flower in Hair" as their first clue, but only 1 location had "small flower petals". I investigated each location first as suggested in the article and I swapped around a few suspects that had the same clue. My first accusation was correct as well. Turn 2 came round and I had only 4 fireworks so I reverted the suspects to their same positions as turn 1 thinking they were correct so I didn't bother accusing them at all.
I basically tried to accuse every suspect from left to right, except for the ones where I knew they were correct due to the fireworks intel. Luckily I only needed to investigate 1 suspect to get 3 clues (was Sesselie). Won on turn 7.
Honestly think I got lucky first time round, coz played a 2nd match and only got 2 fireworks on the first turn.
My theory on the future of classic
Wow, after what I saw posted I think Whizbang should be legal in classic, even if he is from a future expansion. That would give players an affordable way to try classic and then invest in it is they like what they get.
Obviously is too late to implement now in what classic is today without a new meta, as people will not be crazy about entering a year and a half "dead" gamemode. But after the changes, I see it as a nice possibility for population and future company earnings, as Whizbang decks were never perfect.
Edit: Also I have a strong feeling that Whizbang should be given to every player in the game, but I do not think that is going to happen.
My theory on the future of classic
I actually love the tavern brawl idea! If I remember correctly, the entire classic mode came out of the tavern brawl where you could play famous world championship matchups. If it shifted around to various metas every week, it would eventually land on whatever meta was your favourite. And pretty much never get stale.
FrIkY's Custom Death Knight Class - Hearthstone Fan Community Spotlight
This is one of the coolest DKs I've seen, good work!
Goodwills Orchestra - A Hearthstone Custom Expansion
new update, 14 new cards, dont have much to mention but here is new update!
includes a change to Brass Walker, going from a 6/6 to a 4/4 with Taunt and Divine Shield
Next I'll focus on the class legendaries, which have been surprisingly lacking in numbers.
FrIkY's Custom Death Knight Class - Hearthstone Fan Community Spotlight
Awesome! The empower keyword looks really cool! Coming up with thematic and unique keywords is tough. I am currently also making a custom death knight class and it is really fun to compare different takes on the same characters and abilities!
Post Patch Meta Stats
Very little of interest to talk about here:
1. Swain got buffed he is now a top meta deck, really no surprise all the tools were they just needed to buff the big man himself and his boat
2. A fiora deck is feeding on this matchup ^ in combination with pantheon and eula to deny interaction and eat the little things while opening up for lethal
3. Tf Nami and Akshan Lee Sin are still doing their thing to represent pink region.
Thats it that's the meta that's all folks.
Doo doo doo de doo
But in all seriousness outside of woooosh being a 1 mana infinite card engine for pink region, swains boat being too damn cheap at 7, and pantheon fiora existing as a counter to A fast speed interaction and B board flooding the games actually in a great place.
Recently I was going like 6 and 0 with vlad scythe boy because it really is that even and balanced.
My theory on the future of classic
Most people had their favourite meta, favourite deck, so it's hard to say what exact moment they should possibly choose, instead of pure Classic.
And crafting cards is indeed a problem.
My other idea is, instead of Classic ladder with MMR, maybe Blizzard could do Tavern Brawls with specific old meta.
- For example, Journey to Ungoro meta, you can use ALL cards in your collection (if you have them), OR...
- let players choose free pre-constructed decks - so even new players can play for free;
- let us buy Battle-ready decks - Blizzard already sold decks some time ago... (for 20$ i think);
It would mean specific meta would not exist for too long, which might not be bad in my opinion.
But if so - it would be nice if Blizzard could inform us well in advance, which metagame will appear, so that we can be ready :)
They might also consider some additional rewards (I don't know, maybe additional Wild Pack if you win or play some amount of games).
This way Blizzard can also additionally monetize Brawls.
Real Legal Professional Gives His Thoughts About Courtroom Puns in Maw and Disorder Mini-Set
Loved the article. Well done :).
Darkseeker's channel - 13th November update: KOtsosKOtsos' Reno Evolve Shudderwock Shaman - ft. Archivist Elysiana
2nd October update: Collisto's Jade Mill Druid: Big Green Men in 2022!
Milling your opponent and summoning Big Green Men. Tremendous! Plays were less than efficient, but I was able to win. As long as you don't mill the Jade Idols, I guess things are fine!
Deck code: AAEBAZICAtEPiYsEDrS7Asu8Ap7SAr/yAuW6A+i6A4ngA4rgA6+ABK6fBNqfBM+sBK7ABITvBAA=
https://youtu.be/xUjnZ-AfNAo
The Jailer OTK!
The Soularium is perfect card to draw Jailer or Mecha'thun. How many times you had to concede by this self-breaking combo? :)
Legends of Runeterra's Upcoming Card Rotation Explained - Standard, Rotating Champions, & Eternal Format Support
Will they release in PoC at least? Ive been waiting the return of Irelia to it since the 2.0, well i highly doubt she will be their Ionia choice any time since Ahri is way more popular, oh well pain.
Rotation Is Coming
The only concern would be that evergreen won't have a permanent ladder from their statement.
Thats probably a mistake.
20 New Standard Hearthstone Decks From Maw and Disorder - Jailer Paladin, Thief Priest, & More!
Playing Wild Secret Mage yesterday to Dia 5.
Today trying out Standard Secret Mage and oh boy is Secret Mage shi**y in Standard! :D
What a slow, low pressure trash.
Rotation Is Coming
Serious question: why is having to switch from standard to historic a problem?
Is changing the game mode that big of a deal? I mean WotC skrewed up in arena's case a lot by injecting new cards to historic that never were in standard and rebalancing cards that then became op/useless in historic. But in LoR's case I don't think Riot will do something like this.
The concern that old archetypes will get neglected by riot once they rotate out is a concern that I would agree on but then: more focus on new cards and new archetypes? That's not too bad eighter.
In the end the game is supposed to be open in deckbuilding and diverse and removing cards from an available cardpool can actually increase diversity which is why I think rotation is good as long as it is optional
My theory on the future of classic
I actually love it for the nostalgia, but of course I have to admit the mode is extremely unpopular. It doesn't hold people's interest, especially since it has literally not had a patch since it was released a year and a half ago. One thing I'm using it for is as a refuge when you aren't crazy about what's going on in the standard and/or wild meta, so that's still there.
I wouldn't like to see them give up on it completely, though as you say that's a distinct possibility. It's hard to imagine they are profiting off of classic packs.
As far as people dusting all their wild cards, I know that's a thing, and I wonder how widespread it is? I think the Hearthstone Mathematics youtube channel had a poll about this, but I couldn't find it when I went looking.
But yeah, there wouldn't be any point in crafting cards for a mode like this, especially if it was clearly transient, e.g. next one could be the "Blackrock Mountain" event so you wouldn't be able to use that Frost Lich Jaina if you just crafted that for the Frozen Throne event.
My theory on the future of classic
I'd love it. But much like classic itself, there doesn't seem to be a lot of players that really cling on to the nostalgia, nor do they seem to care enough about playing something in the past, particularly since hearthstone back then is significantly slower and less powerful compared to what we can do now.
And then there's one last, and I think very significant, matter. Most players, in my opinion, tend to dust their wild cards to afford playing in standard, and newer players obviously wouldn't have any of these cards to begin with. To ask anyone to craft a legendary for a game mode with 5 or more minutes queue time seems like a hard sell.
Very likely team5 would just forget this mode ever existed, since there's little demand and no obvious way to milk it. But should they opt for it, I feel the most sensible thing to do is to scrap the MMR matchmaking for such a mode, and make wild cards cheaper to afford. A pipe dream worth dreaming about, however remote.
My theory on the future of classic
I've been playing a bit of Classic lately, and with all the rumours flying around about the potential upcoming Death Knight class being added to the game, I thought I'd share a theory.
Back in one of his AMAs, Iksar was throwing a few theories around about what might become of classic, and he said this:
(Source)He only mentioned Gadgetzan as an example. What if the next expansion is Northrend-themed, and Classic mode rotates to what was then Wild (or Standard) mode when Knights of the Frozen Throne came out? Or, perhaps more likely, the Spreading Plague/Fiery War Axe nerf patch.
I would be pretty geeked about that as that was the time when I first started playing competitively, trying to rank up and collect cards.
Warlock deck destroy machine
Try it your self.
Rotation Is Coming
Yeah I used to play a lot of arena in diamond between the beta with amohnket and ixilan, well past war of the spark.
Speaking of arena as a perfect example I actually stopped playing and moved to lor exactly because rotation exists and I could no longer play my favorite decks and archetypes outside of historic.
I think a lot of people did including well known streamers.
Like yes it will be a very fresh time if they delete tf, or lee sin.
Because as we've seen players typically flock to what's good excluding me of course who is happy to make a lot of off meta archetypes work.
It's that mostly even balance curve - like meta being defined as 50% average champ, and 56% top tier is actually a very slim margin
So for the devs to throw that all away and only focus on that top 1% competitive crowd I think is a bit of a waste.
But if it has to be done then what can you do.
Rotation Is Coming
Not sure how much you play rotating formats in other cardgames but from what I know being a mtg standard player for multiple years now:
Rotation is the most refreshing time in year and most players are looking forward to the rotation round about half way in a year.
Old archetypes will come back over and over into the meta as new cards get released and even if we overall don't have as toxic archetypes in LoR than we had in MTG standard the last years (and I am talking decks being tier 1 for years that compare to tk soraka) it's good to know that something like bard isn't an archetype to stay and that there will be the day you don't need to deal with his archetype anymore.
The way rotations work in MTG is that they refresh the field, remove old archetypes, remove answers and enable archetypes that would never take off because they were hosed too much by certain answers/decks. On one hand this can cause for decks having no effective counter and can cause huge balance issues. On the other hand... it's just such a new experience and it enables cards that otherwise would never see play over their region's staples to be played in tier decks and I enjoy nothing more than a significant change in the way decks works.
To put it in a nutshell:
Rotations are a risk but they are worth the risk
Solving the "???" Mysteries of the Deviate Delight Card Back Achievement in Hearthstone - Solve the Castle Nathria Mystery
Wow, that is pretty cool. But it must have also been weird to then figure out which ones were it, fearing you would move the correct one, eh? How did you proceed?
Hearthstone's New Hotfix Brings Armor Changes to Battlegrounds Heroes, Quest Reward Balance, and a Theotar Crash Fix
Speaking of bugs, anyone see how bad Dew Process is. Fatigue your opponent in no time
Rotation Is Coming
https://playruneterra.com/en-sg/news/dev/rotation-in-legends-of-runeterra/
Official news here, LOR is becoming like other CCG's now.
So lets list pros and cons and try to be civil.
Pros:
Balancing old archetypes and regions namely Bilgewater has been like a two year commitment on the part of the devs, and it's something they have to spend constant time and resources on.
Cards like TF while interesting and unique as far as champions are concerned are constantly ending up in some of the best decks in the game (tf swain, tf nami, tf fizz)
It's possible with rotation that newer champs will be seeing more play
Broadens the design space so the devs don't have to balance around legacy interactions
Less time spent updating old champs to be viable again with re-designs
Cons:
The main thing that makes LOR unique is the evergreen state of the meta and how every champ and every card remains playable and somewhat viable in the competitive space in terms of a deck building consideration even if not in terms of the power curve.
Updating old archetypes, followers, and champs is what makes patches so interesting in LOR
Your favorite deck/playstyle potentially getting rotated out of ladder, unless there is a separate equally competitive ladder for the evergreen mode
Personally I weigh in on the con side as the entitled gamer I am saying devs just keep doing amazing comprehensive balance patches forever - just do it.
But again easier said then done, especially as the card pool continually expands over the years and there's more and more to balance.
Real Legal Professional Gives His Thoughts About Courtroom Puns in Maw and Disorder Mini-Set
I think you can view juries like democracies. Few voters know much about running a country, yet we still let them decide who should do it. That doesn't guarantee the population ends up liking the government, or even that the government does a better job than a monarch who's been trained for it all their life would, but most of the world has agreed it's still the best approach overall.
For what it's worth, jurors don't actually need to know anything beyond what illegal activity the defendant has been accused of. All they are being asked to decide is whether the defendant did it or not, and the judge decides how to apply the law from there.