Hello? Hello? Hello! We are now 10 days into the new Murder at Castle Nathria expansion and I wonder how we are progressing so far. I suppose it is my turn once again to create this wonderful thread for sharing our latest experiences on the rewards track. @Alleria, thanks for keeping this little tradition of ours alive with the previous RT thread. I hope you all have had a prosperous start so far!
Since I had collected the highest rewarding XP quests before the current track started, I had a rocket start on day 1. As always, I bought the tavern pass and I opened 250+ packs after which I am still missing Ara'lon at this moment. This is pretty annoying since he is one of the better legendaries and very useful to complete the "Wait, They're Not Plants?" achievement. I hope to find him soon in the upcoming free packs, because I do not want to spend the arcane dust.
Anyways, I am currently sitting at level 69 😄 and I have completed 85% of the new expansion XP achievements. I will hit level 70 later today and finally get my hands on that sweet 20% XP boost again.
How about you? What is your current RT level? How did the expansion launch treat you? Share as much as you like ^_^
EDIT: The standard pack at level 70 was one of my best packs ever; 1 epic + 2 legendaries including the missing Ara'lon, w00t!
Hearthstone needs to be fun. And Brann is a fun card. As for whether something needs to be addressed, that one Im not exactly sure. Because Ive rarely ever see those cards combo out. Playing those decks myself, I rarely get to do it because there's no effective tutors to all those cards and the mad duke along with mutanus still exist to disrupt it.
That problem with guff is still mostly the amount of ramp rather than total mana in my opinion. We're talking a 4-5 mana advantage around turn 5-6, that's not normal. Even if we limit the total mana to 12 that's hardly going to help when your opponent has an extra 4 mana above you anyway.
Personally the biggest problem with guff isn't really the amount of mana available, its the terrible ease of which the class ramps after guff. 1 mana ramp is about as broken as it is, to the point that if I ever saw them draw with hp I immediately think Im going to win the game.
An appropriate nerf would be for the hp to grant empty mana crystals, and for the hero itself to cost 6. But since they're committed to banning it from duels, I guess that's an indication that a nerf to this card isn't forthcoming, much to my displeasure.
Unpopular opinion, I don't get why the card allowed to give Druid players as far as 10 extra mana. I personally think 2 extra mana is more than enough. Playing with 10 extra mana could end up allowing Druid class to execute all sorts of unfun combo that wasn't available in all history of HS.
Imagine Valdris Felgorge allows player to hold 20 cards instead of 12. This is the nerf I'm expecting, not a 1 mana increase nerf (as people suggested).
A little detail.Death Blossom Whomper combined with Brann Bronzebeard, if you activate it with Hedge Maze you can get 2 8/8 minions or one 8/8 minion and draw a reduced minion.(Obviously if they are still in the deck)
Alright, this is my final design and the card I'll be submitting. There shouldn't be any mistakes or inconsistencies in the text. I'll explain the idea behind this design directly in the voting page.
I'm a bit surprised to see how strong the pushback was on the idea of making a card using a newer mechanic for an older set. I'll play by the (unspoken) rule but I think it's a really silly reason to deduct points from a design. If anything, since these are custom cards that will most likely never make it in the actual game, we could really use the extra freedom the developers wish they had when it comes to bringing back old keywords, mechanics, etc.
Anyway, and consider this a minor spoiler -- if Shadows allows me, at least for next week everyone will be encouraged to break this silly rule :)
I was just doing some files clean-up on my desktop when I realized that I haven't posted about my most recent milestones when it did happened, so here's a belated update:
Early in June, I have finally completed Mage's 1k wins portrait !!
I've now only have Druid remaining from the OG 9 classes, and of course Demon Hunter, still dragging behind with barely 150 wins on records, but I'll be working on that in the next little bit. Druid now sitting at 839 wins and currently having a blast with the new cards, so this one is kind of an effortless grind, as it simply implies playing the game ^^
Here's a recap of my current stats - for later comparison purposes - best of luck fellow HearthStoners
Congrats on your win last week. I look forward to what you have for next week's competition.
First thing is first. Do not make Infuse cards for expansions other MaCN. The competition may say that you can, but that doesn't mean that you should. I admire the creativity, but it will cause you to lose some point from a few voters. Myself included particularly. I am quite vocal about the fact that I penalize cards for breaking the game's continuity like this. This was a problem that I had with Nash when it won last week, but it seemed that voting the card on other merits ended up making up for the penalties you may have had.
If you do decide to use the card anyway though, then the card seems fairly okay, but it should have Stoneborn Accuser wording and say Infuse: Gain "Battlecry: Add 3 different Spare Parts to your hand."
To answer your question about Party Greeter, it is intended to draw two minions that you can afford to play regardless of whether or not you can afford both of them right now. You may only be able to play one of them this turn and the other on the next turn, but you will still be able to afford either of them to play now. This isn't too relevant though as I've already submitted Spectral Split.
Adamsleungcn
Both of these card share many of the same problems. Namely the fact that they both need Stoneborn Accuser wording and say Infuse: Gain "Battlecry…". They also also don't really do anything if they aren't Infused, which just makes them extremely terrible if they don't have any infusions. Most Infuse cards do something if they aren't Infused, and the very few that don't are pretty terrible cards. I also think that both of these cards have a bloated textbox. I think you could cut the first Infuse on both of these cards which will improve their balance and clean their textbox.
Dcheming Deckhand appears to have a typo, so it's good to have that changed. It also appears to be a worse Bootstrap Sunkeneer which we just saw in the previous set. Fishing Deckhand looks better, but it does still have the problem of not being from Murder at Castle Nathria.
Grave Horror has a problem in that its name is both not suitable for a Legendary minion, and is already taken by a card in the game also called Grave Horror (which is a Rare, emphasizing my point about the name not being Legendary). The upgrade from Infuse 3 to Infuse 6 is also very insignificant a lot of the time. Rogue has immediate access to Flik Skyshiv which can do the same thing for 1 less mana and no infusing necessary, and its effect to destroy all copies of whatever it destroys has varying levels of relevance where it's sometimes quite strong and sometimes does basically nothing. This however didn't stop the fact that it was still a 6 mana 4/4 minion that came with a free hard removal and was a good target for Rogue tricks. The card also compares quite unfavorably to Insatiable Devourer which has the same effect do devour and gain stats without any infusing necessary, and a bonus effect that is more relevant and powerful in most situations and it also easier to achieve.
Angela Ziegler has an effect that is very obvious, but is still perfectly serviceable and may give you a high score if the card is refined a bit better. I think the added flavor text of "Heros never die!" is unnecessary, but if you decided to keep it anyway, they it shouldn't be bolded. Instead, it should be italicized. The card shouldn't have an Angel tribe tag as it's not a minion type in Hearthstone, and the card also shouldn't use the Classic watermark either. I assume this is mostly to show off a proof of concept rather than a finished idea, but it's never a bad reminder to have if you decide to go with this idea as your submission. I do also think that taking a character from another media universe and making it into a card is probably going to hurt your score pretty significantly unless the competition is specifically based around doing this, so that's something to keep in mind.
EDIT: Anesthesia Shooter is an okay idea (if possibly weak given that Maiev Shadowsong is a card), but the artwork doesn't belong in Hearthstone.
Wailor
I think I prefer the alternate form of Val'kyr Soulkeeper personally, and I think it's good that this version has a Battlecry effect at baseline. It is perhaps a little bit weird that the card has anti-synergy with the second copy of itself because of the 1/1 Soul, but I feel like this is probably just unavoidable with this type of design.
Your Epic Val'kyr Soulkeeper is more flashy, which might do better. I'm really not so sure how to proceed forward with the card actually.
BloodMefist
Wow, I really like Shrewd Broker. It's fairly simple, but it's elegant Relic DH support. I say great job!
Conspicuous Conspirator has great flavor, but I'm not as big of a fan of the effect as I am with Shrewd Broker. I do agree that it steps on the toes of Sketchy Stranger a bit too much, and it also falls into a design that I'm not personally a huge fan of which are Secrets that reveal themselves to the other player since that completely removes the secretive aspect of the Secret.
Very quick (and therefore potentially faulty) maths of previous purchasable pre-order skins - time between pre-order end and skin returning to shop:
Mecha-Jaraxxus - 2 years 10 months
King Rastakhan - 2 years 10 months
Madame Lazul - 2 years 2 months
Elise Starseeker - 2 years 2 months
Deathwing - 2 years
"Still waiting":
Lady Vashj - 2 years 4 months
The KT you wanted - 2 years
As a summary, it's highly likely that the skin will return in the shop within a year, but a year might be a rather long time for you to wait. It should be noted that the longest waits have been the two oldest pre-order skins, so it might be sooner rather than later for the newer skins. Especially since the top 2 on the wait list returned in this expansion.
Caverns of Time is a custom Mini-Set for my expansion Battle of Time Valley it is meant to push forward a few of themes of main set as well as introduce some new themes, some of these cards are most definitely a bit pushed, so let's if you have any feedback be sure to leave it, but first a
Balance Change
Senegos is way to powerful when combined with Celestial Alignment allowing for you to reduce the cost of your entire hand to (0). This change prevents that while Senegos still remains a powerful game-ending effect. Now without further ado let's get unto the Mini-Set.
After successfully loosing to 5 Imp warlocks in a row and barely winning 1 game, I can agree that that cancerous deck needs to be nerfed and will most like be banned at MT
Rewards Track: Current progress 6.0
Hello? Hello? Hello! We are now 10 days into the new Murder at Castle Nathria expansion and I wonder how we are progressing so far. I suppose it is my turn once again to create this wonderful thread for sharing our latest experiences on the rewards track. @Alleria, thanks for keeping this little tradition of ours alive with the previous RT thread. I hope you all have had a prosperous start so far!
Since I had collected the highest rewarding XP quests before the current track started, I had a rocket start on day 1. As always, I bought the tavern pass and I opened 250+ packs after which I am still missing Ara'lon at this moment. This is pretty annoying since he is one of the better legendaries and very useful to complete the "Wait, They're Not Plants?" achievement. I hope to find him soon in the upcoming free packs, because I do not want to spend the arcane dust.
Anyways, I am currently sitting at level 69 😄 and I have completed 85% of the new expansion XP achievements. I will hit level 70 later today and finally get my hands on that sweet 20% XP boost again.
How about you? What is your current RT level? How did the expansion launch treat you? Share as much as you like ^_^
EDIT: The standard pack at level 70 was one of my best packs ever; 1 epic + 2 legendaries including the missing Ara'lon, w00t!
[Updated] Upcoming Hearthstone Hotfix Patch for Castle Nathria - Guff Banned From Duels, Arena Balance, Returning Player Decks, & More Bug Fixes
Hearthstone needs to be fun. And Brann is a fun card. As for whether something needs to be addressed, that one Im not exactly sure. Because Ive rarely ever see those cards combo out. Playing those decks myself, I rarely get to do it because there's no effective tutors to all those cards and the mad duke along with mutanus still exist to disrupt it.
That problem with guff is still mostly the amount of ramp rather than total mana in my opinion. We're talking a 4-5 mana advantage around turn 5-6, that's not normal. Even if we limit the total mana to 12 that's hardly going to help when your opponent has an extra 4 mana above you anyway.
[Updated] Upcoming Hearthstone Hotfix Patch for Castle Nathria - Guff Banned From Duels, Arena Balance, Returning Player Decks, & More Bug Fixes
The problem is the available mana to be honest. Hearthstone js designed around 10 mana maximum.
Guff clearly limits design space. But the same goes for Brann.
Brann is a fun card, but the combo with Sire/Kel Thuzad/Mordresh/Shaman Combo's is a bit too much.
I still dont understand why such a powerhouse needs to be in the core set, maybe because for consistency reason for the League of Explorers.
[Updated] Upcoming Hearthstone Hotfix Patch for Castle Nathria - Guff Banned From Duels, Arena Balance, Returning Player Decks, & More Bug Fixes
Personally the biggest problem with guff isn't really the amount of mana available, its the terrible ease of which the class ramps after guff. 1 mana ramp is about as broken as it is, to the point that if I ever saw them draw with hp I immediately think Im going to win the game.
An appropriate nerf would be for the hp to grant empty mana crystals, and for the hero itself to cost 6. But since they're committed to banning it from duels, I guess that's an indication that a nerf to this card isn't forthcoming, much to my displeasure.
[Updated] Upcoming Hearthstone Hotfix Patch for Castle Nathria - Guff Banned From Duels, Arena Balance, Returning Player Decks, & More Bug Fixes
Well if Guff is on the table then its a good thing I'm holding off on crafting a ramp deck, lol
[Updated] Upcoming Hearthstone Hotfix Patch for Castle Nathria - Guff Banned From Duels, Arena Balance, Returning Player Decks, & More Bug Fixes
Unpopular opinion, I don't get why the card allowed to give Druid players as far as 10 extra mana. I personally think 2 extra mana is more than enough. Playing with 10 extra mana could end up allowing Druid class to execute all sorts of unfun combo that wasn't available in all history of HS.
Imagine Valdris Felgorge allows player to hold 20 cards instead of 12. This is the nerf I'm expecting, not a 1 mana increase nerf (as people suggested).
Sire Lethalrius with Mega Deathrattles
A little detail. Death Blossom Whomper combined with Brann Bronzebeard, if you activate it with Hedge Maze you can get 2 8/8 minions or one 8/8 minion and draw a reduced minion. (Obviously if they are still in the deck)
Infuse The Situation - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Alright, this is my final design and the card I'll be submitting. There shouldn't be any mistakes or inconsistencies in the text. I'll explain the idea behind this design directly in the voting page.
I'm a bit surprised to see how strong the pushback was on the idea of making a card using a newer mechanic for an older set. I'll play by the (unspoken) rule but I think it's a really silly reason to deduct points from a design. If anything, since these are custom cards that will most likely never make it in the actual game, we could really use the extra freedom the developers wish they had when it comes to bringing back old keywords, mechanics, etc.
Anyway, and consider this a minor spoiler -- if Shadows allows me, at least for next week everyone will be encouraged to break this silly rule :)
Cloneball!
After dropping a high-damage minion: "By my calculations, you need to chill out!"
With two more copies in hand, just granted on the draw, not even from the opening or mulligan.
The game mode is . . . limited.
Golden Hero Portrait - Completionist & Grind
I was just doing some files clean-up on my desktop when I realized that I haven't posted about my most recent milestones when it did happened, so here's a belated update:
Early in June, I have finally completed Mage's 1k wins portrait !!
I've now only have Druid remaining from the OG 9 classes, and of course Demon Hunter, still dragging behind with barely 150 wins on records, but I'll be working on that in the next little bit. Druid now sitting at 839 wins and currently having a blast with the new cards, so this one is kind of an effortless grind, as it simply implies playing the game ^^
Here's a recap of my current stats - for later comparison purposes - best of luck fellow HearthStoners
Infuse The Situation - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Extra feedback time.
Congrats on your win last week. I look forward to what you have for next week's competition.
First thing is first. Do not make Infuse cards for expansions other MaCN. The competition may say that you can, but that doesn't mean that you should. I admire the creativity, but it will cause you to lose some point from a few voters. Myself included particularly. I am quite vocal about the fact that I penalize cards for breaking the game's continuity like this. This was a problem that I had with Nash when it won last week, but it seemed that voting the card on other merits ended up making up for the penalties you may have had.
If you do decide to use the card anyway though, then the card seems fairly okay, but it should have Stoneborn Accuser wording and say Infuse: Gain "Battlecry: Add 3 different Spare Parts to your hand."
To answer your question about Party Greeter, it is intended to draw two minions that you can afford to play regardless of whether or not you can afford both of them right now. You may only be able to play one of them this turn and the other on the next turn, but you will still be able to afford either of them to play now. This isn't too relevant though as I've already submitted Spectral Split.
Both of these card share many of the same problems. Namely the fact that they both need Stoneborn Accuser wording and say Infuse: Gain "Battlecry…". They also also don't really do anything if they aren't Infused, which just makes them extremely terrible if they don't have any infusions. Most Infuse cards do something if they aren't Infused, and the very few that don't are pretty terrible cards. I also think that both of these cards have a bloated textbox. I think you could cut the first Infuse on both of these cards which will improve their balance and clean their textbox.
Dcheming Deckhand appears to have a typo, so it's good to have that changed. It also appears to be a worse Bootstrap Sunkeneer which we just saw in the previous set. Fishing Deckhand looks better, but it does still have the problem of not being from Murder at Castle Nathria.
Grave Horror has a problem in that its name is both not suitable for a Legendary minion, and is already taken by a card in the game also called Grave Horror (which is a Rare, emphasizing my point about the name not being Legendary). The upgrade from Infuse 3 to Infuse 6 is also very insignificant a lot of the time. Rogue has immediate access to Flik Skyshiv which can do the same thing for 1 less mana and no infusing necessary, and its effect to destroy all copies of whatever it destroys has varying levels of relevance where it's sometimes quite strong and sometimes does basically nothing. This however didn't stop the fact that it was still a 6 mana 4/4 minion that came with a free hard removal and was a good target for Rogue tricks. The card also compares quite unfavorably to Insatiable Devourer which has the same effect do devour and gain stats without any infusing necessary, and a bonus effect that is more relevant and powerful in most situations and it also easier to achieve.
Angela Ziegler has an effect that is very obvious, but is still perfectly serviceable and may give you a high score if the card is refined a bit better. I think the added flavor text of "Heros never die!" is unnecessary, but if you decided to keep it anyway, they it shouldn't be bolded. Instead, it should be italicized. The card shouldn't have an Angel tribe tag as it's not a minion type in Hearthstone, and the card also shouldn't use the Classic watermark either. I assume this is mostly to show off a proof of concept rather than a finished idea, but it's never a bad reminder to have if you decide to go with this idea as your submission. I do also think that taking a character from another media universe and making it into a card is probably going to hurt your score pretty significantly unless the competition is specifically based around doing this, so that's something to keep in mind.
EDIT: Anesthesia Shooter is an okay idea (if possibly weak given that Maiev Shadowsong is a card), but the artwork doesn't belong in Hearthstone.
I think I prefer the alternate form of Val'kyr Soulkeeper personally, and I think it's good that this version has a Battlecry effect at baseline. It is perhaps a little bit weird that the card has anti-synergy with the second copy of itself because of the 1/1 Soul, but I feel like this is probably just unavoidable with this type of design.
Your Epic Val'kyr Soulkeeper is more flashy, which might do better. I'm really not so sure how to proceed forward with the card actually.
Wow, I really like Shrewd Broker. It's fairly simple, but it's elegant Relic DH support. I say great job!
Conspicuous Conspirator has great flavor, but I'm not as big of a fan of the effect as I am with Shrewd Broker. I do agree that it steps on the toes of Sketchy Stranger a bit too much, and it also falls into a design that I'm not personally a huge fan of which are Secrets that reveal themselves to the other player since that completely removes the secretive aspect of the Secret.
I say definitely go with Shrewd Broker.
New Special Hearthstone Quest for Castle Nathria Is Live - Not by Accident, There Will Be Another
Someone buy this individual a beer
Battlegrounds Emote Bundle Arrives to Hearthstone's In-Game Shop Alongside Two New Skins
Very quick (and therefore potentially faulty) maths of previous purchasable pre-order skins - time between pre-order end and skin returning to shop:
"Still waiting":
As a summary, it's highly likely that the skin will return in the shop within a year, but a year might be a rather long time for you to wait. It should be noted that the longest waits have been the two oldest pre-order skins, so it might be sooner rather than later for the newer skins. Especially since the top 2 on the wait list returned in this expansion.
Infuse The Situation - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Yes it is "Scheming", it's a wrong word. And the idea that make "steal" is awesome! So I remake my cards
If you don't have enough strength to fish, then the fish go back to sea, but if you are powerful ( have already been Infused), you can get fish!
Angele Ziegler is from OW.
Edit.
The Angele Ziegler is similar to Wailor's card, then I make another card.
As Expected, There Won't Be Any Balance Changes for Constructed Hearthstone This Week
No, the bug still seems to be there. And they haven't even addressed it through any official channels.
[Custom Expansion] Battle of Time Valley (Mini-Set Added)
Caverns of Time
A Hearthstone Mini-Set
Caverns of Time is a custom Mini-Set for my expansion Battle of Time Valley it is meant to push forward a few of themes of main set as well as introduce some new themes, some of these cards are most definitely a bit pushed, so let's if you have any feedback be sure to leave it, but first a
Balance Change
Senegos is way to powerful when combined with Celestial Alignment allowing for you to reduce the cost of your entire hand to (0). This change prevents that while Senegos still remains a powerful game-ending effect. Now without further ado let's get unto the Mini-Set.
Demon Hunter
Druid
Hunter
Mage
Paladin
Tokens
Priest
Rogue
Shaman
Warlock
Warrior
Neutral
So yeah I guess that's it(maybe?).
Cloneball!
Damn this brawl sure does get released quite often. Probably the most frequent brawl there is
Marvel Snap's Featured Location This Week is Hell's Kitchen - Draw Something Cheap!
How does one play this game that is so heavily reported?
As Expected, There Won't Be Any Balance Changes for Constructed Hearthstone This Week
After successfully loosing to 5 Imp warlocks in a row and barely winning 1 game, I can agree that that cancerous deck needs to be nerfed and will most like be banned at MT
Battlegrounds Emote Bundle Arrives to Hearthstone's In-Game Shop Alongside Two New Skins
If it happens at all, I would wager it going up after Kel'Thuzad, the Inevitable exits the shop and Hallow's End rolls around.
Cloneball!
Thanks
Cloneball!
To get the pack, you just need one win!
Beware of Gargon - Hunter Castle Nathria Achievement
I think running 4x Dire Frenzy is "a bit too much" lol 😂
Should probably have been 2x Revive Pet instead, to get even more Stonebound Gargons in play.
Anyways, thanks for this deck. I completed the achievement in a swift breeze.
76 New XP Achievements in Hearthstone's Murder at Castle Nathria Expansion - See Them All!
Zeddy did them all already, one week after the launch! He will release a video on the subject soon.
Cloneball!
Do you get a pack for just playing, or do you have to achieve a certain number of wins?