This was a chance To give priest something useful so that it would Be viable in More expansions. Now priest still needs insane cards if it want To Be viable.
The effect is insignificant and the only reason To run this is auctioneer, lyra etc.
Not quite. You only get back the minions that died this turn, not all game. With the high cost it might be hard to do. But I could see wild Shaman running this with Elemental Destruction or Shudderwock. Warlocks could also use Corrupting Mist.
Tbh I don't think this legendary would be used in Shudderwock shaman just because you wouldn't want to resurrect weak bodies from his battlecry, but rather have room to summon extra copies of the 9-drop, which you would later bounce to your hand. Either that or in jade shaman's case you can instantly fill the board with larger and larger men and you wouldn't benefit from Whitemane's effect.
But I was also thinking of using this card in warlock due to the various "friendly minion" destruction tools there. The question arises where you would run this legendary and why not run Kel'Thuzad instead. I personally think Renolock wouldn't be that greedy to add this, but a theoretical deathrattle control build would consider it as an option.
- Naga Sea Witch didn´t have that big winrate, but she was nerfed because It wasn´t fun to lose against that combo.
Instead, playing and losing against Big Priest and Darkest Hour Warlock is very fun and we deserve them in the meta...
To be fair, it took them ages to finally nerf Naga Sea Witch so them taking forever to do something about big priest fits their attitude towards wild (which is caring about it as little as possible).
Possible nerf for Big Priest in Wild would be primary Barnes, because nerfing all the ressurect effects would kill every other deck types (probably).
This is what troubles me most though. I'm afraid just nerfing Barnes at this point won't be enough. And seeing how it took the community what, a year now? Of constant bickering about big priest before they even considered doing something about it makes me feel like we'll have to go through at least another year of Anduin's utter bullcrap.
There's some highroll potential in this one, not sure if I like that.
I mean, if you want to pay 7 mana to take a very slim chance to high roll a King Krush or something, I think I'm probably okay with that. Seems fair enough. But it's a good point.
I'd rather have a solid reliable card than a terribly statted one that has a 1/50 of winning the game or w/e. Trying to balance around absurd highrolls is generally bad design, IMO.
Thats one of the type of decks I really enjoy playing. Any other Legendary replacements for Benedictus and Zola? those are the only ones i'm missing, and they seem to be really important against control, maybe Elysiana can work?
So with new cards being introduced in the basic and classic set, lets discuss their impact on arena. Most of them seem at least playable, some of them quite strong. The fact that they will be in arena every rotation, since they are part of the core sets, is important as well.
Let me share my first thoughts after seeing these beauties :)
Plaguebringer (1): Plague Scientist was a pretty ok arena card, but never an exceptional one due to the combo activation. This will be much better, since it is a battlecry. Stats r not that bad considering the effect, but you will have to be at least on board to take advantage of it. It will definitely be a heavy snowball card, that is for sure.
Radiance (5): Priest got the shortest of sticks here. I dont think anything can save this card in arena, i would probably rather have Purify than this and Purify was removed from the drafting pool back in a day for how bad it was. Just no :D
Siegebreaker (1): This card will be pretty strong in warlock. It is not the best 7 mana taunt we've ever seen, but the demon tag and the potential Raid Leader ability for demons might more than make up for that. In general, warlock does not have consistent access to strong taunts and this is a good one. And the potential demon synergy that will always be there, since Classic set is a core set and does not rotate, needs to be kept in mind.
Gift of the Wild (1): This card will be Silver Sword level broken, mark my words. Yes, it is coslty AF and you probably dont want more than 1 (max 2) copies of it in your deck, but you want it in your deck. Everyfin is Awesome was being played for 7 mana back in a day and it was a powerful buff card. Druid with its swarmy style, where you want to be wide on the board most of the time, will love this card. Not only can it act as a finisher (expensive Savage Roar), but more importantly, it can be used pro-actively, buffing your minions out of AOE range or help them trade up, survive the trade and/or push some more face damage all in the same turn depending on how you need to distribute your attacks. This card will make an impact.
Righteousness (3): We knew this card was coming sooner or later, it was just logical. I personally was curious what cost would it end up having and i think 5 mana is fair overall. It might be hard(er) to get decent value out of it in arena, but it can be a powerful win more card. Free trades into enemy minions or a pro-active protection from aoes? Even if (when) it lands on small minions, it will be SO annoying to get rid of them, cause you will have to spend more resources than you would like to, leaving minions up for paladin is always asking for trouble.
High Inquisitor Whitemane (1): Another super powerful win more card. You kinda need to be on board to get full advantage of it and you need to be able to trade the minions off, which is not what you usually want to do, but you can get an insane swing turn with this, literally Kel'Thuzad for 1 less mana that will trigger once. Often times might just win you the game on the spot. The base stats are actually good enough to play this card naked, so literally any minion you get from the battlecry makes this insanely powerful.
Barrens Stablehand (3): Little bit too RNG for my taste, but looks like an ok card on average. I can already see the trollden King Krush lethals from nowhere.
SI:7 Infiltrator (3): Very good card. Nothing amazing, but very nice card to have in the mix. Decent stats and nice ability to squash those secret lovers.
Arcane Devourer (5): I dont think we will see this card very often in arena. Maybe when you get it via random effect and you are so far ahead (or so far behind) that you will eventually play this. But 8 mana is just damn too high to combo it with anything on the turn you play it, not to mention that spells are kinda sparse in arena overall.
So, there you have it! Obviously a big portion of power level of each card will also depend on the power bucket placement, if they are placed properly, you might not see many of them too often, cause other as powerul (or more) and/or more versatile cards might be picked over them, but most of the new cards seem to have a strong potential in arena. Only time will tell :)
This could have been the perfect time to introduce a new board clear, focused only on damage, unlike Holy Nova. I get the reasoning behind the design, but when they feel the need to print a powerful AoE for Priest every year to compensate for how weak Holy Nova is as a control tool, it really makes me question the whole design process. And when you compare this card to Flash Heal, boy, it sure makes Radiance look extra weak.
EDIT: Oh, and one if the weaknesses they described for Paladin was direct damage, the same class that has Holy Wrath, you know, the card with the most potencial direct damage of all time. They could have made a low power damage spell, despite being a class weakness. I mean, one of Druid's weaknesses is AoE and they have Swipe, which CAN act as AoE. Why not do something like that for Priest? Something like, of the top of my head:
4 mana - deal 4 damage. If you target a friendly minion, heal for the same amount. OR deal 4 damage. If you target a demon, deal double that amount (kinda like an exorcism).
Good? Not good enough for constructed. Fun? Absolutely. Siegebreaker will definitely have a place in BigLock. It will also be important for newbie demon decks as there aren't that many decent big demons, especially if you're lacking epics and legendaries. I used to run stuff like Illidan Stormrage, Fearsome Doomguard and Floating Watcher before Abyssal Enforcer and Voidlord were printed.
It makes me wonder what they mean, Northshire Cleric plus Circle of Healing is one of the best draws in the game. You have to be so careful not to overdraw and it's what makes Nomi Priest even a thing.
Now every class can have their Greater Diamond Speelstone!! And with an additional 6/8 minion!!
This is the answer to our big priest frustration!!!!
Not quite. You only get back the minions that died this turn, not all game. With the high cost it might be hard to do. But I could see wild Shaman running this with Elemental Destruction or Shudderwock. Warlocks could also use Corrupting Mist.
I also can’t help but notice that Whitemane has never been so... modestly attired before
Getting rid of Vanish is pretty surprising. Unless there's something gamebreaking with it in the next expansion, it seems like it kind of came out of nowhere.
I don't understand the timing unless there is some powerful cards coming for Rogue and Priest in the next expansion that would make Mind Blast and Vanish OP. Mind Blast was OP last expansion, not now. Vanish is seeing play in Pogo Rogue but that's not exactly a prolific deck. There must be something coming.
Nerf priest, a class that didn't have anyone playing it at a massive tournament, and not hunter or conjurer's calling? Makes sense, guys. (Hearthstone Mathematics just released a video where the stats are getting out of hand for hunter; 1 out of 4 opponents is a hunter, and that's the kind of attention that could start the nerf aim.).
Seems a lot of the new stuff is aimed at buffing (or in Whitemane's case, rezzing) aggro garbage, which we DO NOT need. I have fun playing control against control warrior and other slower decks. Smorc, aggro and stacking mech paladin, not so much, and I find that boring as hell. Whitemane gives you the ability to suicide a board into big minions or taunts or refund your deathrattles. Just getting one suicidal venomous minion back with Whitemane's big body might be worth the drop as well. I'll give it that Whitemane could see play on both aggro and control decks.
The only bright spot is most of these are high mana cost, which may keep all but Whitemane and Siegebreaker in demon decks from seeing play.
Do like SI:7 just for giving a permanent anti-secret tech (if we ever need or can run it again; when you have too many aggro decks in the meta or player base, tech tools such as this and OTK disruptions fall in favor of multiple mass removals, which makes the game repetitive and boring to me). I can see conjurer's mages experimenting with the Barrens Stablehand. Brightwing is a fun low-cost dragon, but RNG isn't playing well at the moment (how many Madam Lazuls or mech pinatas get play?). You could argue Brightwing dilutes the dragon pool, especially if you end up with worse junk like Duskfallen Avianna or Milhouse as your battlecry reward.
Speaking as a long-time priest player, I prefer Mind Blast as a finisher than Inner Fire, btw. IF is the inverse of Bloodlust and Savage Roar; instead of waiting for a packed minion board, you just need one high health minion for an OTK. It's for decks that have nothing and it's a lazy mechanic. Mind Blast takes a set-up to kill, not to mention some earlier pressure (you're not likely to kill a 30-health opponent or anyone stacking armor).
my favorite card is Brightwing adorable little neutral legendary. the only thing is that the art looks more like a murloc than a dragon if you don't look to closely.
I have a niche tattoo. It's not Hearthstone related but its the Prime Helix from the 40k Universe.
I have often considered getting a Leper Gnome tattoo or a Gnomeferatu tattoo on my shoulder though. I'm getting another for my birthday in a couple of weeks. So that just might be it.... 🤔
New Priest Spell - Radiance
This was a chance To give priest something useful so that it would Be viable in More expansions. Now priest still needs insane cards if it want To Be viable.
The effect is insignificant and the only reason To run this is auctioneer, lyra etc.
New Neutral Minion - High Inquisitor Whitemane
Tbh I don't think this legendary would be used in Shudderwock shaman just because you wouldn't want to resurrect weak bodies from his battlecry, but rather have room to summon extra copies of the 9-drop, which you would later bounce to your hand. Either that or in jade shaman's case you can instantly fill the board with larger and larger men and you wouldn't benefit from Whitemane's effect.
But I was also thinking of using this card in warlock due to the various "friendly minion" destruction tools there. The question arises where you would run this legendary and why not run Kel'Thuzad instead. I personally think Renolock wouldn't be that greedy to add this, but a theoretical deathrattle control build would consider it as an option.
News from Mike Donais
To be fair, it took them ages to finally nerf Naga Sea Witch so them taking forever to do something about big priest fits their attitude towards wild (which is caring about it as little as possible).
This is what troubles me most though. I'm afraid just nerfing Barnes at this point won't be enough. And seeing how it took the community what, a year now? Of constant bickering about big priest before they even considered doing something about it makes me feel like we'll have to go through at least another year of Anduin's utter bullcrap.
New Neutral Minion - Barrens Stablehand
I'd rather have a solid reliable card than a terribly statted one that has a 1/50 of winning the game or w/e. Trying to balance around absurd highrolls is generally bad design, IMO.
New Neutral Minion - Barrens Stablehand
This card is offensively bad for an epi
10 New Hearthstone Cards Coming to the Game, New Hall of Fame Additions
It’s a pretty accurate representation of the Brightwing in Heroes of the Storm. Which is made more cartoonish to give the character more personality.
Fohtun-tellin 101 (feat. Madame Lazul)
Thats one of the type of decks I really enjoy playing. Any other Legendary replacements for Benedictus and Zola? those are the only ones i'm missing, and they seem to be really important against control, maybe Elysiana can work?
[Arena Impact] 10 New basic/classic cards
So with new cards being introduced in the basic and classic set, lets discuss their impact on arena. Most of them seem at least playable, some of them quite strong. The fact that they will be in arena every rotation, since they are part of the core sets, is important as well.
Let me share my first thoughts after seeing these beauties :)
Rating (1=excellent, 2=good, 3=average, 4=poor, 5=terrible)
Plaguebringer (1): Plague Scientist was a pretty ok arena card, but never an exceptional one due to the combo activation. This will be much better, since it is a battlecry. Stats r not that bad considering the effect, but you will have to be at least on board to take advantage of it. It will definitely be a heavy snowball card, that is for sure.
Radiance (5): Priest got the shortest of sticks here. I dont think anything can save this card in arena, i would probably rather have Purify than this and Purify was removed from the drafting pool back in a day for how bad it was. Just no :D
Siegebreaker (1): This card will be pretty strong in warlock. It is not the best 7 mana taunt we've ever seen, but the demon tag and the potential Raid Leader ability for demons might more than make up for that. In general, warlock does not have consistent access to strong taunts and this is a good one. And the potential demon synergy that will always be there, since Classic set is a core set and does not rotate, needs to be kept in mind.
Gift of the Wild (1): This card will be Silver Sword level broken, mark my words. Yes, it is coslty AF and you probably dont want more than 1 (max 2) copies of it in your deck, but you want it in your deck. Everyfin is Awesome was being played for 7 mana back in a day and it was a powerful buff card. Druid with its swarmy style, where you want to be wide on the board most of the time, will love this card. Not only can it act as a finisher (expensive Savage Roar), but more importantly, it can be used pro-actively, buffing your minions out of AOE range or help them trade up, survive the trade and/or push some more face damage all in the same turn depending on how you need to distribute your attacks. This card will make an impact.
Righteousness (3): We knew this card was coming sooner or later, it was just logical. I personally was curious what cost would it end up having and i think 5 mana is fair overall. It might be hard(er) to get decent value out of it in arena, but it can be a powerful win more card. Free trades into enemy minions or a pro-active protection from aoes? Even if (when) it lands on small minions, it will be SO annoying to get rid of them, cause you will have to spend more resources than you would like to, leaving minions up for paladin is always asking for trouble.
Brightwing (2): Decent value generator. It is no Messenger Raven, but close enough.
High Inquisitor Whitemane (1): Another super powerful win more card. You kinda need to be on board to get full advantage of it and you need to be able to trade the minions off, which is not what you usually want to do, but you can get an insane swing turn with this, literally Kel'Thuzad for 1 less mana that will trigger once. Often times might just win you the game on the spot. The base stats are actually good enough to play this card naked, so literally any minion you get from the battlecry makes this insanely powerful.
Barrens Stablehand (3): Little bit too RNG for my taste, but looks like an ok card on average. I can already see the trollden King Krush lethals from nowhere.
SI:7 Infiltrator (3): Very good card. Nothing amazing, but very nice card to have in the mix. Decent stats and nice ability to squash those secret lovers.
Arcane Devourer (5): I dont think we will see this card very often in arena. Maybe when you get it via random effect and you are so far ahead (or so far behind) that you will eventually play this. But 8 mana is just damn too high to combo it with anything on the turn you play it, not to mention that spells are kinda sparse in arena overall.
So, there you have it! Obviously a big portion of power level of each card will also depend on the power bucket placement, if they are placed properly, you might not see many of them too often, cause other as powerul (or more) and/or more versatile cards might be picked over them, but most of the new cards seem to have a strong potential in arena. Only time will tell :)
What are your thoughts on new cards?
New Priest Spell - Radiance
This could have been the perfect time to introduce a new board clear, focused only on damage, unlike Holy Nova. I get the reasoning behind the design, but when they feel the need to print a powerful AoE for Priest every year to compensate for how weak Holy Nova is as a control tool, it really makes me question the whole design process. And when you compare this card to Flash Heal, boy, it sure makes Radiance look extra weak.
EDIT: Oh, and one if the weaknesses they described for Paladin was direct damage, the same class that has Holy Wrath, you know, the card with the most potencial direct damage of all time. They could have made a low power damage spell, despite being a class weakness. I mean, one of Druid's weaknesses is AoE and they have Swipe, which CAN act as AoE. Why not do something like that for Priest? Something like, of the top of my head:
4 mana - deal 4 damage. If you target a friendly minion, heal for the same amount. OR deal 4 damage. If you target a demon, deal double that amount (kinda like an exorcism).
New Warlock Minion - Siegebreaker
Good? Not good enough for constructed. Fun? Absolutely. Siegebreaker will definitely have a place in BigLock. It will also be important for newbie demon decks as there aren't that many decent big demons, especially if you're lacking epics and legendaries. I used to run stuff like Illidan Stormrage, Fearsome Doomguard and Floating Watcher before Abyssal Enforcer and Voidlord were printed.
New Neutral Minion - Brightwing
Slots so perfectly in a Dragon Shudderwock deck!
Keeping Hearthstone Unique - Class Identity Breakdown
It makes me wonder what they mean, Northshire Cleric plus Circle of Healing is one of the best draws in the game. You have to be so careful not to overdraw and it's what makes Nomi Priest even a thing.
New Neutral Minion - Barrens Stablehand
Probably a reluctant pick in Arena but not really something you'd want in standard. For 7-mana, you want more than simply a bunch of stats.
New Priest Spell - Radiance
Because this is 1-mana cheaper.
Because 1-mana cards are easier for cycling with Auctioneer and proc'ing Pyromancer.
Because it reduces the cost of Grave Horror by 1 but is cheaper.
IDK maybe you run both or one of each? I'm not saying this card is a knockout powerhouse of broken absurdity, I'm just throwing out some ideas.
New Neutral Minion - High Inquisitor Whitemane
Not quite. You only get back the minions that died this turn, not all game. With the high cost it might be hard to do. But I could see wild Shaman running this with Elemental Destruction or Shudderwock. Warlocks could also use Corrupting Mist.
I also can’t help but notice that Whitemane has never been so... modestly attired before
10 New Hearthstone Cards Coming to the Game, New Hall of Fame Additions
Getting rid of Vanish is pretty surprising. Unless there's something gamebreaking with it in the next expansion, it seems like it kind of came out of nowhere.
New Priest Spell - Radiance
True, but then someone would ask themselves why they would run this spell, when they could use Divine Hymn instead.
10 New Hearthstone Cards Coming to the Game, New Hall of Fame Additions
I don't understand the timing unless there is some powerful cards coming for Rogue and Priest in the next expansion that would make Mind Blast and Vanish OP. Mind Blast was OP last expansion, not now. Vanish is seeing play in Pogo Rogue but that's not exactly a prolific deck. There must be something coming.
10 New Hearthstone Cards Coming to the Game, New Hall of Fame Additions
These are from longer period of time. E.g. Rag and Sylvanas never got their replacements, now Brightwing and Whitemane will fix that.
10 New Hearthstone Cards Coming to the Game, New Hall of Fame Additions
Nerf priest, a class that didn't have anyone playing it at a massive tournament, and not hunter or conjurer's calling? Makes sense, guys. (Hearthstone Mathematics just released a video where the stats are getting out of hand for hunter; 1 out of 4 opponents is a hunter, and that's the kind of attention that could start the nerf aim.).
Seems a lot of the new stuff is aimed at buffing (or in Whitemane's case, rezzing) aggro garbage, which we DO NOT need. I have fun playing control against control warrior and other slower decks. Smorc, aggro and stacking mech paladin, not so much, and I find that boring as hell. Whitemane gives you the ability to suicide a board into big minions or taunts or refund your deathrattles. Just getting one suicidal venomous minion back with Whitemane's big body might be worth the drop as well. I'll give it that Whitemane could see play on both aggro and control decks.
The only bright spot is most of these are high mana cost, which may keep all but Whitemane and Siegebreaker in demon decks from seeing play.
Do like SI:7 just for giving a permanent anti-secret tech (if we ever need or can run it again; when you have too many aggro decks in the meta or player base, tech tools such as this and OTK disruptions fall in favor of multiple mass removals, which makes the game repetitive and boring to me). I can see conjurer's mages experimenting with the Barrens Stablehand. Brightwing is a fun low-cost dragon, but RNG isn't playing well at the moment (how many Madam Lazuls or mech pinatas get play?). You could argue Brightwing dilutes the dragon pool, especially if you end up with worse junk like Duskfallen Avianna or Milhouse as your battlecry reward.
Speaking as a long-time priest player, I prefer Mind Blast as a finisher than Inner Fire, btw. IF is the inverse of Bloodlust and Savage Roar; instead of waiting for a packed minion board, you just need one high health minion for an OTK. It's for decks that have nothing and it's a lazy mechanic. Mind Blast takes a set-up to kill, not to mention some earlier pressure (you're not likely to kill a 30-health opponent or anyone stacking armor).
/make Shadowform useful, please
10 New Hearthstone Cards Coming to the Game, New Hall of Fame Additions
these cards look awesome!
my favorite card is Brightwing adorable little neutral legendary. the only thing is that the art looks more like a murloc than a dragon if you don't look to closely.
New Priest Spell - Radiance
I guess one positive about this card is that it is not targeted, meaning that it has absolute consistency with Vargoth (same way that Mind Blast did).
10 New Hearthstone Cards Coming to the Game, New Hall of Fame Additions
Why are these all classic? Weren't most of the HoF cards from Witchwood?
Hearthstone Tattoos
I have a niche tattoo. It's not Hearthstone related but its the Prime Helix from the 40k Universe.
I have often considered getting a Leper Gnome tattoo or a Gnomeferatu tattoo on my shoulder though. I'm getting another for my birthday in a couple of weeks. So that just might be it.... 🤔
New Neutral Minion - Arcane Devourer
I actually will try it in Muckmorpher Eureka shaman deck (aka Big Shaman) as one off. This deck have many small cheap spells.