Note: What I'm about to write below concerns wild. Priest's state in standard is abysmal because of its terrible classic set. If Blizzard want to fix priests awful standard state during the start of each year, they should either buff some of their classic cards, or introduce some new, strong, not broken classic cards.
People saying priest only has a single archetype in wild are plain wrong. What needs to happen for priest to shy away from their resurrect bullshit is a nuke. Nuke big priest, nerf it so hard that no one will ever want to play it again and the actual priest mains will show the rest of the community that the class is far from a one trick pony.
Control priest is still a strong deck that could easily reach tier 2 depending on the meta.
And dragon inner fire priest is a dark horse in my opinion. The deck has already been tier 1 multiple times but has always had an extremely small sample size. Not because of its matchup against big priest. But, in my opinion, because people just don't want to play priest because everyone dislikes the class in wild because of a single deck. And because of that, people will never see that there are still other strong priest decks and thus the only priest deck you ever see is big priest. Kind of a vicious cycle, really. And the only solution is a big, fat kaboom on Barnes and the resurrect cards.
Just to note, I tend to be rather against buffing and still not fully convinced the ones we did were a good idea (I do know I can be wrong: I also said we shouldn't do rotations before we did it), and even if we do as others said the classic set should not be stronger than the expansion set. IMO Classic should be placeholders or fill spots. That is, if there's something in the expansion cards that don't cover what your deck needs, the classi set should offer an option, though not as good a replacement to what an expansion would cover. For example, if you need a good tempo 2 drop, your first aim should be expansion cards, with classic being the "ugg there's no 2 drop, guess I can use this." alternative. THAT SAID!!..
Druid (technically could buff almost ANY card, but I decided feral druid needs some love)
Savagery 1->0 mana this card is really bad as is.. at least it should cost less.. also goes well with the next bufff.
I'm actually ok with this one. It still makes the card horribly niche but once that niche kicks in the card becomes very abusive.
Bite 4-> 3 mana this card never saw play (after it got nerfed in beta) druid has worse ramp right now it can be buffed.
This also works as it's still really bad this way but offers something usable enough to use when nothing else is available.
Hunter - hunters got a strong classic set so..
King Krush 9-> 8 mana this card was ONLY good cause of katrena winterwisp otherwise it's terrible, with this buff it's a decent finisher if you can get there.. another suggestion could be +1 attack or even more minor +1 hp. it IS a legendary after all and the worst classic class legendary in that...
No to this one. Katerena has shown that this card CAN be made usable if the right niche kicks in. Thus it's already at the spot I said Savagery could get into once your buff comes in. Making it cheaper risks a big time charge beast finisher actually usable on a regular basis. The 'it's a legendary' argument is falling on deaf ears: legendaries are NOT made to be more powerful than other cards, just more unique and interesting. Being one of the few big time cards that can charge serve that.
Gladiator's Longbow 2->3 durability, this card costs 7 mana! you are overpaying 2 mana over arcanite reaper for being immune which is a 0.5 mana effect looking at
Candleshot this weapon has too little durability for how much it costs..
Not sure I'm up for this one. 15 damage is a lot to give to hunter. Note that Candleshot with 1 damage and 3 durability was broken as crap. The thought of making a high end weapon in CLASSIC coming remotely close to candleshot in any way is enough to nope out of this one.
Paladin - not too much to buff here either, some card buffs might be too toxic for the game if buffed.
Lay on Hands - 8->7 mana at least lets you do something else the turn you play it..
Paladins start doing very nasty things once they get reliable card draw, and blizzard loves to give that to them in expansions. So shrinking the cost seems dangerous.
If anything, I'd up the health boost. Maybe +10 health or even more. Thus instead of being able to rely on tempo it lets you draw while surviving the next attack better.
Argent Protector 2/2->2/3 can't buff anything else there.. holy wrath is pointless and blessed champion would be too oppressive as a combo piece this card has a 0.5 mana cost effect attached to it.. could be a 2/3 really, great in arena.
Similar to card draw, giving paladin good tempo cards is also a VERY dangerous thing. Best just to leave it alone than try to lock down to a 'MUST buff 2 cards each class to be fair!' The classes are horribly balanced in their base/classic sets, so it makes sense that they may not need the same buffs on each side.
Priest - his classic set SUCKS but can't be easily buffed in long term, but I did find 2 cards worthy low risk buffs.
Shadowform 3-> 2 mana hero power change cards cost 2 in other sets this card is fun to use but costs too much also you lose the healing for using it so.. yeah 2 mana.. still probably not playable but it's a fun card.
That won't really change anything. The proble mwith shadowform isn't the cost: I've seen priests try it and they had no problems casting the spell. The problem is consistency. A '2 damage a turn' priest needs a different deck from a '2 healing a turn' priest, and you can't be sure when you are getting the spell.
Holy Fire 6->5 mana could help priest since this card is played sometimes mostly cause of lack of other alternatives.. value wise 5 damage= 3.5 mana, 5 healing =1 mana bundling cost =0.5 good enough.
I'm ok with this one.
Rogue - just got nerfed but I got some unrelated archtype buffs.
Kidnapper - 5/3-> 5/4 this card is badly stated for it's cost
This won't help. It's 6 mana to sap a minion that requires combo. That's just no.
And I'm afraid of making it cheaper because the last thing rogue needs is MORE tempo.
Patient Assassin - 1/1-> 1/2 it's a small buff but this guy is never played at all I am not sure though since arena exists.. and rogue is strong there..
This is technically fine for the assassin, but goes back to "why ARE we buffing Rogue in the first place?" Blizzard was able to fit in 2 buffs per class in boomsday, but we don't need to stick to that mindlessly. If a class is already strong enough why force yourself to buffing them? If you DO want to buff anything on a strong class, aim for cards that won't help them directly but opens up some fun, if less powerful, alternatives. I can't think of anything fun to do with this one though.
Shaman the overload mechanic was underestimated as a drawback back in classic
Lightning Storm 3->2 mana, this card is not even played in shaman control decks, and is mostly a feelsbad when it is.. would rather lower the overload by 1, but I already stated that I would not change the card text.
Honestly, I would rather find a way to eliminate the randomness, but I can't think of a balanced way to set that. So 2 mana feels ok enough.
I'd kill an overload off of it. Yes yes, 'don't change the text' you said. F that. There's no reason to force that on yourself.
0 mana makes it VERY dangerous as a synergy card as all 0 mana cards do. The 2 mana overload meanwhile makes it impossible to use normally. Normally that means "niche" which is great but 0 mana niche turns OP far too fast (i.e. Auctioneer fodder).
1 overload makes it usable for overload synergies and make it about as hard to use as the other overload cards shaman tends to use when embracing overload.
Warlock
Felguard 3->2 mana, if you are destroying one of you mana crystals.. it's better be worth it.. 1 mana "Cheat" for -1 mana the whole game? hell no..
I don't know. That might make it too strong for zoo decks that rely on cheap cards anyway. Otherwise it's far too painful at -1 mana.
I just don't think you can really balance this thing well without completely changing it.
Siphon Soul 6->5 mana overcosted removal, when it was played it was one of the worst cards in warlock..
I'm fine with it costing 6. I'm feeling that warlock shouldn't have easy to use removal. It should be PAINFUL to focus on a removal route and spending a lot of mana is painful. If you want cheap removal, go Rogue or Priest.
Warrior
Mortal Strike 4->3 mana it's a fireball if you are meeting the requirement otherwise it's just an ok card
Mortal Strike imo is exactly where classic should be. The card is in that "*sigh* I guess this will work" place. it should be slightly under balance with expansion cards being ON balance.
That I'm actually fine with. Unlike paladin, Warrior doesn't go nuts with any old decent aggressive minion (an expansion made of pirate aggression otoh...) and that card is a little tricky to use. But it DOES open up a bit more that Engra..err the mechanic formally known as Enrage mindset.
Mage
Icicle 2->1 mana worst card in mage, should not cost 2..
Agreed.
Etheral arcanist 3/3-> 3/4 never played card, easi'ish to counter.
NO! *NO!*
The card does NOT need to be anything close to viable. When it actually DOES work it's one of those instawin risks and Edwin. Edwin, though, takes a lot of build up and risk to play him. Arcanist doesn't require more than a secret to stick, which tendss ot happen depending on which secrets are around for mage. There's no good way to make him usable without being broken.
So nevermind buffing. I'm all for just cutting him out of the game before someone figures out a way to make him actually work.
Neutral
Illidan Stormrage 7/5-> 7/6 should be buffed.. I think his text should be more impactful but I can't change it by my own rules.
Honestly I like his minion making thing and I wouldn't dare buff it. honestly I'd rather flip the stats: 5/7, so that his threat comes more from his spawns rather than his attack.
Arcane Golem 3-> 2 mana if you are giving your opponent a huge upside at least make it worth... was nerfed too hard..
Makes cards that summon random 2 drops stronger and he's still worthless as is.
if you really want to spice him up but keep him Classic viable.. again breaking that silly rule: "both players gain a mana crystal."
I mostly know the value of each individual card and how they could interact together, but am completely clueless on how many of each type of card should go into a deck, or how to fill a mana curve. For me, HearthArena really helps here. I usually don't ignore any draft advice when it says I "really need an x drop".
That is also one of the things that becomes not entirely accurate with time. It heavilly depends on the meta shaped by the current card pool and then the class you are playing. Some classes in the past literally didnt need any 2-drops for example, when control RNGfiesta was the way to play. HA usually tries to push you towards midrange or tempo deck, which is fine, but you need to assess your own situation and know what archetypes are working for any given class at the moment and decide if it is a right direction to go or not.
Again, for unexperienced arena player, HA is a really amazing tool to help them get more wins fast and to get better, but you shouldnt religiously follow its advice once you get some experience ;-) Not saying HA cant be right most of the time, but you should think of why it appears to be important for your deck to pick the suggested card, not just pick it cause the app said so :)
What can be done to steer priest away from just the rez/big strat?
Note: What I'm about to write below concerns wild. Priest's state in standard is abysmal because of its terrible classic set. If Blizzard want to fix priests awful standard state during the start of each year, they should either buff some of their classic cards, or introduce some new, strong, not broken classic cards.
People saying priest only has a single archetype in wild are plain wrong. What needs to happen for priest to shy away from their resurrect bullshit is a nuke. Nuke big priest, nerf it so hard that no one will ever want to play it again and the actual priest mains will show the rest of the community that the class is far from a one trick pony.
Control priest is still a strong deck that could easily reach tier 2 depending on the meta.
And dragon inner fire priest is a dark horse in my opinion. The deck has already been tier 1 multiple times but has always had an extremely small sample size. Not because of its matchup against big priest. But, in my opinion, because people just don't want to play priest because everyone dislikes the class in wild because of a single deck. And because of that, people will never see that there are still other strong priest decks and thus the only priest deck you ever see is big priest. Kind of a vicious cycle, really. And the only solution is a big, fat kaboom on Barnes and the resurrect cards.
Fight the System! Biggest Counters to Popular Meta Decks
Maybe you prefer 2x SoulFire but can they swing a losing game around and give you a win?
When you run out of steam, Rafaam got your back ^^
(Theorycrafting)Classic set buffs
Just to note, I tend to be rather against buffing and still not fully convinced the ones we did were a good idea (I do know I can be wrong: I also said we shouldn't do rotations before we did it), and even if we do as others said the classic set should not be stronger than the expansion set. IMO Classic should be placeholders or fill spots. That is, if there's something in the expansion cards that don't cover what your deck needs, the classi set should offer an option, though not as good a replacement to what an expansion would cover. For example, if you need a good tempo 2 drop, your first aim should be expansion cards, with classic being the "ugg there's no 2 drop, guess I can use this." alternative. THAT SAID!!..
Druid (technically could buff almost ANY card, but I decided feral druid needs some love)
Savagery 1->0 mana this card is really bad as is.. at least it should cost less.. also goes well with the next bufff.
I'm actually ok with this one. It still makes the card horribly niche but once that niche kicks in the card becomes very abusive.
Bite 4-> 3 mana this card never saw play (after it got nerfed in beta) druid has worse ramp right now it can be buffed.
This also works as it's still really bad this way but offers something usable enough to use when nothing else is available.
Hunter - hunters got a strong classic set so..
King Krush 9-> 8 mana this card was ONLY good cause of katrena winterwisp otherwise it's terrible, with this buff it's a decent finisher if you can get there.. another suggestion could be +1 attack or even more minor +1 hp. it IS a legendary after all and the worst classic class legendary in that...
No to this one. Katerena has shown that this card CAN be made usable if the right niche kicks in. Thus it's already at the spot I said Savagery could get into once your buff comes in. Making it cheaper risks a big time charge beast finisher actually usable on a regular basis. The 'it's a legendary' argument is falling on deaf ears: legendaries are NOT made to be more powerful than other cards, just more unique and interesting. Being one of the few big time cards that can charge serve that.
Gladiator's Longbow 2->3 durability, this card costs 7 mana! you are overpaying 2 mana over arcanite reaper for being immune which is a 0.5 mana effect looking at
Candleshot this weapon has too little durability for how much it costs..
Not sure I'm up for this one. 15 damage is a lot to give to hunter. Note that Candleshot with 1 damage and 3 durability was broken as crap. The thought of making a high end weapon in CLASSIC coming remotely close to candleshot in any way is enough to nope out of this one.
Paladin - not too much to buff here either, some card buffs might be too toxic for the game if buffed.
Lay on Hands - 8->7 mana at least lets you do something else the turn you play it..
Paladins start doing very nasty things once they get reliable card draw, and blizzard loves to give that to them in expansions. So shrinking the cost seems dangerous.
If anything, I'd up the health boost. Maybe +10 health or even more. Thus instead of being able to rely on tempo it lets you draw while surviving the next attack better.
Argent Protector 2/2->2/3 can't buff anything else there.. holy wrath is pointless and blessed champion would be too oppressive as a combo piece this card has a 0.5 mana cost effect attached to it.. could be a 2/3 really, great in arena.
Similar to card draw, giving paladin good tempo cards is also a VERY dangerous thing. Best just to leave it alone than try to lock down to a 'MUST buff 2 cards each class to be fair!' The classes are horribly balanced in their base/classic sets, so it makes sense that they may not need the same buffs on each side.
Priest - his classic set SUCKS but can't be easily buffed in long term, but I did find 2 cards worthy low risk buffs.
Shadowform 3-> 2 mana hero power change cards cost 2 in other sets this card is fun to use but costs too much also you lose the healing for using it so.. yeah 2 mana.. still probably not playable but it's a fun card.
That won't really change anything. The proble mwith shadowform isn't the cost: I've seen priests try it and they had no problems casting the spell. The problem is consistency. A '2 damage a turn' priest needs a different deck from a '2 healing a turn' priest, and you can't be sure when you are getting the spell.
Holy Fire 6->5 mana could help priest since this card is played sometimes mostly cause of lack of other alternatives.. value wise 5 damage= 3.5 mana, 5 healing =1 mana bundling cost =0.5 good enough.
I'm ok with this one.
Rogue - just got nerfed but I got some unrelated archtype buffs.
Kidnapper - 5/3-> 5/4 this card is badly stated for it's cost
This won't help. It's 6 mana to sap a minion that requires combo. That's just no.
And I'm afraid of making it cheaper because the last thing rogue needs is MORE tempo.
Patient Assassin - 1/1-> 1/2 it's a small buff but this guy is never played at all I am not sure though since arena exists.. and rogue is strong there..
This is technically fine for the assassin, but goes back to "why ARE we buffing Rogue in the first place?" Blizzard was able to fit in 2 buffs per class in boomsday, but we don't need to stick to that mindlessly. If a class is already strong enough why force yourself to buffing them? If you DO want to buff anything on a strong class, aim for cards that won't help them directly but opens up some fun, if less powerful, alternatives. I can't think of anything fun to do with this one though.
Shaman the overload mechanic was underestimated as a drawback back in classic
Lightning Storm 3->2 mana, this card is not even played in shaman control decks, and is mostly a feelsbad when it is.. would rather lower the overload by 1, but I already stated that I would not change the card text.
Honestly, I would rather find a way to eliminate the randomness, but I can't think of a balanced way to set that. So 2 mana feels ok enough.
Forked Lightning 1->0 mana this card is too weak atm
I'd kill an overload off of it. Yes yes, 'don't change the text' you said. F that. There's no reason to force that on yourself.
0 mana makes it VERY dangerous as a synergy card as all 0 mana cards do. The 2 mana overload meanwhile makes it impossible to use normally. Normally that means "niche" which is great but 0 mana niche turns OP far too fast (i.e. Auctioneer fodder).
1 overload makes it usable for overload synergies and make it about as hard to use as the other overload cards shaman tends to use when embracing overload.
Warlock
Felguard 3->2 mana, if you are destroying one of you mana crystals.. it's better be worth it.. 1 mana "Cheat" for -1 mana the whole game? hell no..
I don't know. That might make it too strong for zoo decks that rely on cheap cards anyway. Otherwise it's far too painful at -1 mana.
I just don't think you can really balance this thing well without completely changing it.
Siphon Soul 6->5 mana overcosted removal, when it was played it was one of the worst cards in warlock..
I'm fine with it costing 6. I'm feeling that warlock shouldn't have easy to use removal. It should be PAINFUL to focus on a removal route and spending a lot of mana is painful. If you want cheap removal, go Rogue or Priest.
Warrior
Mortal Strike 4->3 mana it's a fireball if you are meeting the requirement otherwise it's just an ok card
Mortal Strike imo is exactly where classic should be. The card is in that "*sigh* I guess this will work" place. it should be slightly under balance with expansion cards being ON balance.
Cruel Taskmaster 2/2-> 3/2 more aggressively stated minion.
That I'm actually fine with. Unlike paladin, Warrior doesn't go nuts with any old decent aggressive minion (an expansion made of pirate aggression otoh...) and that card is a little tricky to use. But it DOES open up a bit more that Engra..err the mechanic formally known as Enrage mindset.
Mage
Icicle 2->1 mana worst card in mage, should not cost 2..
Agreed.
Etheral arcanist 3/3-> 3/4 never played card, easi'ish to counter.
NO! *NO!*
The card does NOT need to be anything close to viable. When it actually DOES work it's one of those instawin risks and Edwin. Edwin, though, takes a lot of build up and risk to play him. Arcanist doesn't require more than a secret to stick, which tendss ot happen depending on which secrets are around for mage. There's no good way to make him usable without being broken.
So nevermind buffing. I'm all for just cutting him out of the game before someone figures out a way to make him actually work.
Neutral
Illidan Stormrage 7/5-> 7/6 should be buffed.. I think his text should be more impactful but I can't change it by my own rules.
Honestly I like his minion making thing and I wouldn't dare buff it. honestly I'd rather flip the stats: 5/7, so that his threat comes more from his spawns rather than his attack.
Arcane Golem 3-> 2 mana if you are giving your opponent a huge upside at least make it worth... was nerfed too hard..
Makes cards that summon random 2 drops stronger and he's still worthless as is.
if you really want to spice him up but keep him Classic viable.. again breaking that silly rule: "both players gain a mana crystal."
The Thunder God deck.
Imo, drop the spirit echos for N’Zoth and Shudderwock
Fight the System! Biggest Counters to Popular Meta Decks
I recently opened Rafaam, but I was running double Soulfire in my Zoolock before that, and I think I liked that better.
Fight the System! Biggest Counters to Popular Meta Decks
i always waited for a counter-meta topic,
i love it :D
nice job guys, keep it up! <3
Fight the System! Biggest Counters to Popular Meta Decks
What he said! This is great stuff.
Summoning the Old Gods and the ancient arbiters!
You really should though :
Fight the System! Biggest Counters to Popular Meta Decks
*Blushes* I'm glad you enjoyed it.
How to best react when your opponent has the nuts
da way
Summoning the Old Gods and the ancient arbiters!
so...
Fight the System! Biggest Counters to Popular Meta Decks
Fantastic write-up, thank you for this!
[DoD] Descent of Handbuffs (Dragon Handbuff Paladin)
Thanks!
Look, it's a Shark eating a C'thun Burger!
Actually, it might be a decent addition, since the card draw is so non existent.
/edit: removed one Corrupted Seer for Gral, the Shark :)
Look, it's a Shark eating a C'thun Burger!
Honestly, I expected Gral, the Shark to be included based on the title.
How to best react when your opponent has the nuts
My dogs both stand up and immediately leave the room when I start making angry noises. This makes me feel even worse.
what is the funniest flavor text?
I love the [Hearthstone Card (EVIL Conscripter) Not Found] text:
Kobold! There's a place you can handle
I said kobold! When you're short in the candle
Cast a spell with the E! V! I! L!
I seriously get this stuck in my head to the tune of YMCA all the time, lol. I wish we had a full parody.
Summoning the Old Gods and the ancient arbiters!
Oh, I'm here. I just don't spam that frequently.
*Hello*
Brawl Block: Gods, Gadgetzan, Gurubashi
I wish I had more cards to play this Brawl... feelsbadman
Summoning the Old Gods and the ancient arbiters!
Awwww yesss, I got mentioned! Glad to see you here as well.
You can roam around more freely for now as we don't exactly have a reporting/warning system fully up and running yet. No, wait...
Summoning the Old Gods and the ancient arbiters!
I'm so happy to see you here <3
what is the funniest flavor text?
Your mother was a Murloc, by Evil Heckler.
About using HearthArena
That is also one of the things that becomes not entirely accurate with time. It heavilly depends on the meta shaped by the current card pool and then the class you are playing. Some classes in the past literally didnt need any 2-drops for example, when control RNGfiesta was the way to play. HA usually tries to push you towards midrange or tempo deck, which is fine, but you need to assess your own situation and know what archetypes are working for any given class at the moment and decide if it is a right direction to go or not.
Again, for unexperienced arena player, HA is a really amazing tool to help them get more wins fast and to get better, but you shouldnt religiously follow its advice once you get some experience ;-) Not saying HA cant be right most of the time, but you should think of why it appears to be important for your deck to pick the suggested card, not just pick it cause the app said so :)
Summoning the Old Gods and the ancient arbiters!
Welcome home!
Core Set 2020 Bundle Pre-Order Up on MTG Arena
Hello, Teferi Hero of Dominaria... And Lyra Dawnbringer, nice to meet you, too