Man the tier list is straight up out the window right now.

https://lor.mobalytics.gg/stats/regions

When you actually examine the up to date win rates for decks the existing tier lists are essentially useless.

We have seen a massive number of decks drop to a barely playable winrate like 51%

So I'll list only the decks that are currently 53% and higher, yes the list is kinda scuffed.

1. Kenin Ahiri 57% combo is doing well into the grindy card piles people are running

2. Spider aggro 57% yeeep good old Elise perhaps the best vanilla champ

3. Pirate aggro 56% never went anywhere always was good always will  be

4. Lurk 55% the most resilient midrange deck in Runeterra will always have a place

5. Pantheon 54% Whiteflame is a good card bro

6. Rally Zed 54% you know the drill

7. Darkness 53% solid control

8. Poros 53% grindy aggro

Everything else has dropped to 0 like a bullet. Plunder midrange get out of here, poppy decks gone, yordle burn gone, Sion never knew yeee, Akshan who? Lee Sin what? 

Honestly it's time for a new mobalytics tier list  because all these nerfs, plus the recent buffs, plus meta defining grindy cards like white flame have absolutely upset the meta.

Does anyone else have problems playing in ranked mode? I'm too nervous when I play it. Also I have a little heart problem (it pricks when I'm beside myself). There is almost no such thing in any other mode. Because of this, I still haven't reached the Legend rank. Every rank game I'm afraid of losing. Even if it's clearly visible that I'm stronger than my opponent. I really want to achieve this cherished goal, but I still can't get over myself... Damn, it's just a game. 

Post buffs the most exciting deck I wanted to explore was mono shurima.

Basically carrying on the back of three important changes. Sun disc is free now, empire ascended is 6 mana and xerath got a point of health.

All of this means we can meme with movie time and lose less often.

So this is the version I settled on tripple Azir tripple Xerath feel best. One buffs your deck the other puts your opponent on a clock.

The next problem to solve is A how do we have board presence and B how do we remove stuff so the opponent doesn't steam roll us. Problem C how do we protect Champs and disc.

For A I chose count down reducers at 2, 3, and 5 mana. If they are just gonna trade anyway let them do the thing we want them to do. Plus treasure seeker, big sand boy devalues swings.

For B I chose right of the arcane and unworthy as removal options.

For C its basically soothsayer or bust.

So thats it that the deck, is it slow and kind of a meme absolutely, but youre already limiting yourself to a meme deck so might as well play the best version.

So we finally get a look at what the devs think needs to be improved from an archetype perspective.

The big winner is control...vengeance is 6 mana this one mana difference is game changing. It's actually possible to pass pass into like a Zigs kill if your hand is super heavy.

Freijord changes to anivia and and trundle again I'm like not the biggest fan of this deck but it should punish infinite value Bandle decks and Heimer, Zoe etc. So thats great. The deck also has an actual identity and unique play flavor and I'm all about that.

Kindred goes down to 4 mana and Xerath gets a point of health big buffs to the I just want you to stick to the board Champs. I have said before that in skilled hands Xerath has no skill ceiling and now that he's that much harder clear he's a real threat.

Mono shurima now gets to auto play its landmark and again 6 mana instead of 7 mana to auto level its Champs to tier 3. Hey look Riot is putting the fun back in there game...great stuff I'd like to see more of this.

Reminds me of when they buffed braum he was basically unplayable before and now he's at least a little scary as like a hard counter. I could almost see Fiora and Shen having their nerfs reverted because again we want these champs playable, for the sake of fun.

I think Riots getting that so a few more buff passes like this one and I think the game will be in a much more "unbalanced" but funner (not a real word) state.

When I play Ignite Mage, in several cases I cannot go lethal because the rope time out.

While I have seen several opponents that in the same situation continue to Ignite even after the ropes end .... what is the technicality to play more ignites? tks

Competition Theme: Counting On You

Get your calculators out, because we're asking you to do some really intensive counting this week!

• You must create a card which cares about the number of minions on the board
  • Whether an effect that scales based on the number of minions, or a threshold that needs to be hit, your card needs to be counting those minions!

It's time for BloodMefist's competition, and this one is all about keeping track of the board. Make sure you count carefully!

As always, I can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.

Competition Phases

Here are the phases of this card design competition

• Submission Phase: Starts on Mon, Jan 3 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sat, Jan 8 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, Jan 8 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sun, Jan 9 16:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, Jan 9 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Mon, Jan 10 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

Discussion Thread Rules

No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

Hi all,

This is my first attempt at Mercenaries content. I feel like Mercenaries is the perfect mode to represent the heroes of Overwatch and their abilities.

Roles

Tanks = Protectors, Damage = Fighters, Support = Casters

The Mercenaries include: Level 30 stats (without +1/+5 max bonus), All Level 5 abilities and all Level 4 equipment.

Every now and again, I will update this thread with brand new Mercenaries. To tide us over until then, here are the first five: Roadhog, Reaper, Widowmaker, Genji and Brigitte.

Roadhog

Reaper

Widowmaker

Genji

Brigitte

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these Mercenaries, feedback is much appreciated. Thank you!

I recently discovered there's a Mercenary tab in Hearthcards, and, since I've been playing Mercs recently, I wanted to create a custom character. It's mainly based on the Crypt Lord from Warcraft 3.

Skins

Stats at levels 1, 15 and 30.

The first skin is the default one.

Abilities

Equipment

Happy New Year everybody! Let's get it started! My first three games played this year were against :

  (1) Questline Warlock  (2) Questline Warrior  (3) Questline Mage

Hahahaha - here's to new beginnings! Cheers! 

So its well known that Runeterra is the most balanced card game in the genre.

It does this by sacrificing powerful archetypes with unique flavor upon the nerf cross over and over again until everything is essentially equal.

Case and point, I look and see what Graplr the only streamer still supporting the game daily is playing and its Heimer Zoe with Whiteflame?

So basically infinite value soup with zero synergy or deck flavor. I don't know about you guys but when I see that I'm just craving the days when I could get rushed down by pirate aggro, or Azir sandman, or a Zillian Ekko deck went infinite on me, or Ezreal burned me down, or Poppy built an insane board or a million other unique and interesting independent deck builds existed and were sucessful.

They were sucessful not because.they were balanced but because.they weren't, and that's the real story here, "synergy" means when I run this card with that other card they are better than than both those cards alone...without synergy you don't have decks, and you dont have a card game.

I know I've been harping on this but it seems like people are starting to agree with the whole do the regions, Champs, followers, and spells have enough flavor. The answer they did before.that flavor was nerfed out of existence.

Riot stop nerfing and start buffing seriously, we get roughly 20 nerfs to every single buff on average and it's killing the "synergy" it's killing the "decks" its killing the "fun" in your game.

Murlocs are out of control again and now it's a totally different reason. Now everyone gets poison and enough life that div shields aren't even necessary.

We need a unit, fairly formidable, called Herpetologist. While this unit is alive your units cannot be poisoned.

Right now only rly beefy mech comps can take them out and it's a little ridiculous. If murlocs are in lobby just forget about playing elems, demons and quillboar. 

Tech card needed. Maybe make it like the snake where you can give your unit a dose of anti venom like it gives reborn.....

Which one variant is better? 45 regular packs or 10 golden packs?

I play decks that take actual thinking like Thief Rogue, Handlock, and Menagerie DR DH. You play decks that take simple computing like Pirate Warrior, Elemental Shaman, and Face Hunter.

I am a human. You are a robot.

What piques my interest when a new set comes out are cards that look enjoyable and can lead to different paths each game. What you care about is which are over-tuned and will lead to 100''s of repetitive games.

I am a human. You are a robot.

When I net-deck something that looks good I'm happy to throw in a few cards I find fun, and I still win. You among millions shudder at the thought of deviating from the list.

I am a human. You are a robot.

When I win with my deck I know that I had a lot to do with it. When you win with yours, trust me it was more the deck.

I am a human. You are a robot.

I play Arena because it's fresh every time and takes some skill to get far in. You play Duels with the same 15 cards every time in every class; playing against other robots and whoever gets the more busted treasures and passives wins.

I am a human. You are a robot.

I put enjoying myself playing a video game above winning while you are a sad android that can't stand to lose.

I am a human. You are a robot.

Thread title.

This has been driving me nuts, and I'd be willing to wager that there are a ton of other people that feel the same.  I normally love to go in and bust out these achievements for the new expansion as it gets you more XP and higher on the rewards track to earn more gold with each level.  This time around though, does anyone else feel that Blizzard has taken their sweet time in addressing these bugs?

I had posted/reported a number of bugs with these achievements since day one and I am still finding myself at a loss for words.  I've not heard of any announcement of when/if they are planning on addressing these bugs.  I have been checking the forums of several sites and Blizzard numerous times and I haven't seen anything.

I work in software, so I know that this time of year... virtually nothing gets done.  Most people are taking time off for the holidays and such.  So I can anticipate there being a delay.  But even in most software environments it feels that there is some kind of information available.  But for this expansion it sounds like crickets. 

What are everyone else's experiences with this so far?

Scion Set

Hunting Theme:

These 3 are considered "Prey" and function similarly to Treants or Animal companions. The pool can expand with new expansions.

Fire Magic:

Positioning and Agility:

Diverse cards:

This is a work in progress. I'll edit and update this during the following days. Any feedback is welcomed and gladly appreciated!

Competition Theme: Nightmare On Emerald Street

It's time to turn our dreams into reality! But our sleep has been far too restless lately... oh dear...

• You must create a Druid card themed around the Emerald Nightmare
  • It's not been touched upon too much in Hearthstone, so there's lots of free space to work with!

Our very own linkblade91 is looking for a different kind of Druid this week. Dream up some nightmarish cards for him!

As always, I can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.

Competition Phases

Here are the phases of this card design competition

• Submission Phase: Starts on Mon, Dec 27 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sat, Jan 1 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, Jan 1 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sun, Jan 2 16:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, Jan 2 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Mon, Jan 3 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

Discussion Thread Rules

No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

First off, I have some complaints, but I do not believe this belongs in the salt thread. Overall, I really enjoy playing Mercenaries, and I want to air my frustrations here, and see if others feel similarly (and maybe have suggestions).

Mercenaries is VERY fun. I love the questing aspect of it, the colorful characters, and the progression of upgrading their abilities and equipment. I recently completed all the bounties on Normal, and am working on Heroic.

The economy is BAD. It is very hard to gain coins for any specific Merc. Plus, I just maxed out my first Merc (Cariel) and am still earning coins for her. A recent bounty gave me THREE coin drops for Cariel, totally useless. Would it be so hard for the game to check for maxed out Mercs before awarding coins?

The task board is fraught with frustration. I had an empty spot, but it still said "the campfire is full" when I encountered the coveted "Mysterious Stranger." I have also caught the game not tracking my accomplishments (needed to Deathblow 75 times as Grommash, but it did not count every time I did it, I checked repeatedly). Finally, whenever I get the "Use Boon: Caster" task, it takes forever to find a board with that Boon on it. I start a bounty, check the map, no Boon: Caster, so I retire and start over. I reroll the board 8-10 times, finding BOTH other Boons alternating, before I finally get the one I need. This has happened to me several times.

And last of all, I have quit entirely on the Fighting Pit. It used to be the best way to earn coins and level up Mercs quickly (bring a mismatched squad with one low level Merc and five level 30's, get matched with an AI and profit). It has been over a week since I faced an AI. Instead, I get matched with overpowered players and get creamed, and that's AFTER waiting 4-6 minutes for a game. It's clear that very few players are playing Mercenaries, or the matchmaking wouldn't take so long.

If you sat through my whole rant, thanks for your patience. I would love to know that other players enjoy Mercenaries as much as I do, and are equally frustrated with its faults. And if so, what can we do about it?

So Bruised by God one of the best Runeterra players strictly on ladder has come out to say that he thinks the Kenin Ezreal nerf was heavy handed.

https://youtu.be/7TGeMe3REbw

I personally agree, because the only thing keeping infinite value decks in cheque aka shellfolk cycle shenanigans (as an example) was the very real threat that you would just instantly lose queuing into a combo matchup that would just burn you down to 0 even if you had 100 cards.

That threat is gone now, taking the matchup options of aggro-> midrange -> control-> combo down to essentially midrange/aggro/control soup aka I start agressive, cycle hard, play midrange threats and then transition into infinite value lategame.

You compound this lack of deck building identity with limited viable champion compositions, and I can understand his frustration and the general lack of engagement with the game from popular streamers like Swim and Mogwai.

Afterall how can you cry for a nerf and simultaneously be responsible for the dumbing down of the game by limiting the deck building variety and matchup tables, and champ compositions.

Now this is more of an overall trend in the game, a lot of interesting and viable decks have been nerfed into the ground leading into a lack of build identity. I think Shen can be pushed back on top to fight dragons, Azir Irelia can be pushed back to fight aggro, and Fizz Tf can be pushed back to counter control, and yes Ezreal Kenin can be pushed to counter value decks.

If everything is broken and unbalanced by definition nothing will be and it will lead to more dynamic and unpredictable matchups and play experiences. Just my two cents, what do you guys think?

Ladder experiences are driven by heroes and Villains. You as the deck brewer have something to prove you want to beat that meta deck into the ground everyone else says is so op, but what happens when there are no villains anymore.

Lor is a fascinating case study because it is essentially the most balanced digital card game in existence to the extent that they will never need to rotate cards and only live balance changes will effect potential deck performance outcomes.

Case and point, Pirate aggro! People stopped playing this deck largely out of boredom but it still puts up numbers I'm talking 57% percent winrates currently right now making it essentially one of the best decks in the game.

But it isn't a villain and it's isn't played enough to be worth counter brewing against and very little satisfaction comes from beating it.

Lee Sin by comparison is not an amazing deck hovering between 51 and 52 percent winrate but it's play patterns are dynamic enough to stick in the mind of the looser.

You are getting beaten 100% when Lee Sin kicks you down to 0. My point is for me personally I find myself playing LOR far more when there is essentially a boss deck to beat, and far less when people can run any midrange soup and win.

Don't pressure the devs to hotfix too fast in the future, enjoy each stage of the meta as it progresses, and let things breathe a bit...otherwise it's just gonna be Bilgewater for literally the next 10 years of this games life cycle.

I'm more of a collector and thus never got into deck building in Hearthstone although I'm playing HS since the very beginning. Since the meta is getting more and more boring for me, I want to take a look at deck building. I feel, it is a good point in time, since next year a lot of sets will rotate and the card pool will be rather small.

However I can't find any real detailed guide about how to approach deck building at all. The best one I found is the Beginners Guide over at Icy-Veins, which is quite superficial.

Can you recommend any good guides (YT or Twitch Videos would be okay too), that go beyond the basic tips?

Well, I actually knew this was a thing a few days back but since only Reddit is showing it, I thought I should at very least keep all informed that Thjis is hosting an invitational tournament today (21st Dec) on 2pm CET. Watch it via his twitch or through the other participants. Far as I know, Kibler, bunnyhopper, nohandsgamer, gaby, and curiously Cora (currently in blizz as designer) are part of it.

At very least because its less serious than blizz run tournaments we can expect there to be a mix of tier 1-2 decks along with a few less viable but fun decks as well. It is, after all, the first tournament post patch.

For anyone serious about hearthstone esport, or just ranked standard should give it a watch. Its one of those rare non-blizz tournament I've seen in ages.

I'm probably the only person who feels this way because I'm a bit of a curmudgeon, but is anyone else finding the proliferation of skins a bit... much?

I started playing (mostly F2P, but I did get the two most recent Tavern Passes) back around TGT. There were some alternate skins then, but not a crazy number. I remember being so stoked when I got my first (Morgl, I think?) because of their (relative) rarity.

Now it seems like every other week there's a bundle of 5-8 dropping, or maybe two bundles. I don't feel compelled to collect them, and don't care if other people want them. And hey, if you don't want the bundles, there's the 14 or so on the rewards track. Plus the 200 level portraits. Go Nuts with trying to get them! No complaints. 

But it does seem like each time I load Battlegrounds I have trouble recognizing which hero is which. Every time* (*obviously not every time) I open the game there's new pop ups with ads for more bundles. I queue into a match and I'm kind of bewildered what my opponent is (particularly if playing on mobile).

It's not that it's bad, per se, but it seems a little overloaded to me.

Hello together,

I'm not very good at deck building. But I have an idea for a deck and I need you help. I want to use the new buffed mage cards (Parrot, Dawngrasp, Wildfire), but it should not be a Big Spell Mage. Of course we need at least some good spells >5 mana for the Parrot. I like Mask of C'Thun and [Hearthstone Card (Arcance Overflow) Not Found], because it's sure they hit enemies. I'm thinking about Deep Freeze and Rune of the Archmage, too But I don't want to add other big spell stuff like Balinda, Clumsy Courier or Tower. So tboth of them might be too expensive. At least Deep Freeze is a Frost spell, which is good for Dawngrasp.

The second idea is to narrow the spells that Dawngrasp will cast, e.g. he/she/it should always play Wildfire as the only Fire spell. So I would probably only add max only one other Fire spell, maybe Fireball to close out games. By this I expect the hero power of Dawngrasp to be at least 4 damage from the beginning. 

So the synergies I want to build around are Hero Power + multiple Spellschools + >=5mana spells that target enemies. The Parrot should cast Mask, or Overflow (or Deep Freeze). Dawngrasp should cast Wildfire, Mask, Overflow (and/or Deep Freeze).

This is the current skeleton I created containing the core cards of my idea.

(incomplete) Buffed Mage

Wild · Hero Power Mage · by aposteljoe · 4 years, 4 months ago

• 1 Shivering Sorceress x 2
• 1 Wildfire x 2
• 4 Multicaster x 2
• 4 Reckless Apprentice x 2
• 5 Arcane Overflow x 2
• 6 Grey Sage Parrot x 2
• 7 Magister Dawngrasp x 1
• 7 Mask of C'Thun x 2
• 8 Mordresh Fire Eye x 1

4,960 Dust 618 0 Copy Deck Code

There are obviously some HP synergy cards missing (Manafeeder, Tour Guide, Fallen Hero, Coldarra) and the Frost spell(s) (Deep Freeze and/or Ice Barrier?) that I'm unsure about how much and which to take. I thought about Starscryer, too. Can you help me to put some flesh onto the bones?

Is it intentional for Felwalker to not draw 3 cards from Hand of Gul'dan?